Consumption of Bing Sweet Cherries Lowers Circulating Concentrations of Inflammation Markers in Healthy Men and Women ,

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of consuming sweet cherries on plasma lipids and markers of inflammation in healthy humans. Healthy men and women (n = 18) supplemented their diets with Bing sweet cherries (280 g/d) for 28 d. After a 12-h fast, blood samples were taken before the start of cherry consumption (study d 0 and 7), 14 and 28 d after the start of cherry supplementation (study d 21 and 35), and 28 d after the discontinuation (study d 64) of cherry consumption. After cherries were consumed for 28 d, circulating concentrations of C-reactive protein (CRP), regulated upon activation, normal T-cell expressed, and secreted (RANTES), and NO decreased by 25 (P < 0.05), 21 (P < 0.05), and 18% (P = 0.07) respectively. After the discontinuation of cherry consumption for 28 d (d 64), concentrations of RANTES continued to decrease (P = 0.001), whereas those of CRP and NO did not differ from either d 7 (pre-cherries) or d 35 (post-cherries). Plasma concentrations of IL-6 and its soluble receptor, intercellular adhesion molecule-1, and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases-2 did not change during the study. Cherry consumption did not affect the plasma concentrations of total-, HDL-, LDL-, and VLDL- cholesterol, triglycerides, subfractions of HDL, LDL, VLDL, and their particle sizes and numbers. It also did not affect fasting blood glucose or insulin concentrations or a number of other chemical and hematological variables. Results of the present study suggest a selective modulatory effect of sweet cherries on CRP, NO, and RANTES. Such anti-inflammatory effects may be beneficial for the management and prevention of inflammatory diseases.

Tart cherry supplementation improves working memory, hippocampal inflammation, and autophagy in aged rats

“…Moreover, when 18 healthy male and female adults (age 45-61) consumed 280 g of Bing sweet cherries daily, a , and densitometry analysis (bottom) of the immunoreactive bands normalized to β-actin, with results represented as mean ± SEM; n = 7/group. Asterisk indicates statistically significant difference between the groups (p < 0.05) comparable amount of cherry (approximately 4 g/kg/ day) as in this study, they showed a significant drop in serum C-reactive protein (hsCRP) levels compared to placebo controls (Kelley et al 2006). These findings support the idea that cherry polyphenols have antiinflammatory properties.…”

“…A 2 % (w/w) Montmorency tart cherry dose was chosen based on previous studies in humans (Kelley et al 2006), as well as those conducted in our laboratory demonstrating the beneficial effects of phytochemical-rich berry fruits (i.e., blueberry, strawberry, cranberry, blackberry, black currant, and boysenberry) on cognition, motor function, and suppression of inflammation and oxidative stress in aged animals and accelerated aging models (Casadesus et al 2004;Goyarzu et al 2004;Shukitt-Hale et al 2005;Galli et al 2006;Shukitt-Hale et al 2007, 2009aMalin et al 2011). The amount of ground corn was adjusted in the control diet to compensate for the added volume of the freeze-dried cherry powder, in accordance with established methodology (ShukittHale et al 1998;Youdim et al 2000).…”

Efficacy of Tart Cherry Juice to Reduce Inflammation Biomarkers among Women with Inflammatory Osteoarthritis (OA)

“…These have been identified in natural foods from black tea to tart cherries to fish oil. Antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agents have been identified in tart cherries, and a study among healthy, non-exercising individuals demonstrated that sweet cherry consumption decreased serum inflammatory biomarkers (Kelley, Rasooly, Jacob, Kader, & Mackey, 2006). This has led to speculation that consumption of tart cherries may be effective in alleviating symptoms in inflammatory conditions (Tall et al, 2004).…”

The association of fruits, vegetables, antioxidant vitamins and fibre intake with high-sensitivity C-reactive protein: sex and body mass index interactions

“…Most studies on this issue were randomized trials with very specific exposures, such as highpressurized orange juice (Sanchez-Moreno et al, 2003), carotenoid-rich vegetables and fruits (Watzl et al, 2005), sweet cherries (Kelley et al, 2006), berries and apples (Freese et al, 2004) and vegetable soup 'gazpacho' (Sanchez-Moreno et al, 2004), and provided non-conclusive results, as most of them found decreased inflammatory levels with the intake of these food items, but one failed to show a reduction of CRP after several weeks of intervention (Freese et al, 2004). All of the observational studies reported an inverse association between fruit and vegetable intake and inflammatory markers (Esmaillzadeh et al, 2006), mainly in the elderly (Gao et al, 2004, Wannamethee et al, 2006, but none have examined the effect of fruits separately from vegetables, in men and women of all ages from the same population.…”