Effect of dietary 2-mercaptoethanol on the life span, immune system, tumor incidence and lipid peroxidation damage in spleen lymphocytes of aging BC3F1 mice

Obesity, longevity, quality of life

“…[29][30][31][32][33][34] Based on the multitude of beneficial effects of 2-Me for cell functions in vitro plus mercaptan changes that occur with age and protein deprivation 35,36 (which led to the free radical theory of aging 25 ) raised the question: What consequences, besides toxicity, 37 might 2-Me impart if administered as a dietary supplement? This was especially intriguing considering its effect on changes associated with aging; (a) modestly increased life span of long-lived mice, 23 (b) delayed decline of immune functions with age, 23,38 (c) except for old C57BL, enhanced the immune response of old mice by a single injection, 39 (d) reversed the loss of antibody responsiveness in old mice back to that of young mice by only 3 or 4 weekly injections, 39 (e) delayed the spontaneous appearance of tumors release, 40 and (g) prevented malondialdehyde formation. 40 This latter chemical is implicated in irreversible cross-linking of proteins and DNA, 41 which is formed along with lipofuscins 23,42,43 during autooxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids.…”

“…Subsequently, addition of 2-Me to culture media was found beneficial for growth/ function of other cell types, including those of other species. [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] Although a number of mechanisms have been proposed for 2-Me's action in tissue culture, 22,23 it, as well as other sulfhydryl compounds, are generally categorized (a) as free radical reaction inhibitors/scavengers, 24 and/or (b) to maintain (i) appropriate protein sulfhydryl-disulfide moieties for function, (ii) nature's endogenous thiol-disulfide-factors, such as glutathione and thioredoxin, at functional concentrations and proper cellular redox balance, [25][26][27][28] and (iii) sulfhydryls present on cell surface membranes in appropriate thiol-disulfide states. [29][30][31][32][33][34] Based on the multitude of beneficial effects of 2-Me for cell functions in vitro plus mercaptan changes that occur with age and protein deprivation 35,36 (which led to the free radical theory of aging 25 ) raised the question: What consequences, besides toxicity, 37 might 2-Me impart if administered as a dietary supplement?…”

Clinical implications of the basic defects in Cockayne syndrome and xeroderma pigmentosum and the DNA lesions responsible for cancer, neurodegeneration and aging

“…Each of these has been investigated in model systems with various degrees of success, but few have yet emerged from clinical trials as strong candidates. The strongest evidence for a biological role for ROS comes from treatment of mice with antioxidants that have achieved life extension as well as reduced neurodegeneration (Heidrick et al, 1984;Holloszy, 1998;Meydani et al, 1998). Treatment of Atm mice with antioxidants has shown promising success in reducing Purkinje cell damage and improving behavioral endpoints Gueven et al, 2006).…”

Dietary supplemented 2-mercaptoethanol prevents spontaneous and delays virally-induced murine mammary tumorigenesis

“…Supplementation with 2-Me was well-tolerated as it did not alter consumption of food or water and did not result in weight loss/gain compared with age-matched controls-these data are not included since it did not differ from that reported previously for many other strains. [18][19][20][21]31,40 Treatment with 2-Me was started at weaning (35-40 d of age) and continued for an animal's entire life. Average daily consumption of 2-Me fluctuated over the lifetime from 60-80 ugm/gm body wt.…”

“…Research on xenobiotic sulfur compounds with simple structures has generally been focused on in vitro benefits for a multitude of cell-types and processes (> 1,000 articles in PubMed). Subsequently, as might be expected, xenobiotics (primarily 2-Me and cysteamine) when either injected into or fed to animals were found to modify a multitude of disease processes (REC in preparation), including spontaneous tumor development [18][19][20] and virally-, 21,22 carcinogenic- [23][24][25][26][27][28] and radiation-induced cancers. [29][30][31] The present report describes alteration of spontaneous and virally-induced tumor development by the extensively investigated immune enhancing, xenobiotic organosulfur, 2-Me and compares its anticancer efficacy to that of other organosulfurs.…”