Acrolein (ACR) is
found exogenously as
a widespread environmental pollutant and endogenously, where it is
thought to be involved as a pathogenic factor in the progression of
many pathological conditions. Eliminating ACR by dietary-active substances
has been found to be one potential strategy to prevent ACR-associated
chronic diseases. This study first compared the scavenging ACR efficacy
of four purine alkaloids, theophylline (TP), paraxanthine (PXT), theobromine
(TB), and caffeine (CAF), and then, TP, CAF, and their metabolites
were investigated for their ability to trap ACR in vivo. Our results indicated that TP, which possesses an −NH moiety
at the N-7 position, exhibits the best ACR-trapping capacity in vitro, while CAF has a slight ability to trap ACR due
to the substitutions by −CH3 at the N-1, N-3, and
N-7 positions. After oral administration of TP or CAF, the ACR adducts
of TP and the metabolites of TP or CAF (e.g., mono- and di-ACR-TP,
mono-ACR-1,3-DMU, and mono-ACR-1-MU) were detected in urinary samples
obtained from both TP- and CAF-treated mouse groups by using ultra-performance
liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. The quantification
studies demonstrated that TP and its metabolites significantly trapped
ACR in a dose-dependent manner in vivo. Furthermore,
we also detected those ACR adducts of TP and TP/CAF’s metabolites
in human urine after four cups of green tea (2 g tea leaf/cup) or
two cups of coffee (4 g coffee/cup) were consumed per day. Those results
indicated that dietary TP or CAF has the potential capacity to scavenge
ACR in vivo.