Gene expression changes in mononuclear cells in patients with metabolic syndrome after acute intake of phenol-rich virgin olive oil

Abstract

BackgroundPrevious studies have shown that acute intake of high-phenol virgin olive oil reduces pro-inflammatory, pro-oxidant and pro-thrombotic markers compared with low phenols virgin olive oil, but it still remains unclear whether effects attributed to its phenolic fraction are exerted at transcriptional level in vivo. To achieve this goal, we aimed at identifying expression changes in genes which could be mediated by virgin olive oil phenol compounds in the human.ResultsPostprandial gene expression microarray analysis was performed on peripheral blood mononuclear cells during postprandial period. Two virgin olive oil-based breakfasts with high (398 ppm) and low (70 ppm) content of phenolic compounds were administered to 20 patients suffering from metabolic syndrome following a double-blinded, randomized, crossover design. To eliminate the potential effect that might exist in their usual dietary habits, all subjects followed a similar low-fat, carbohydrate rich diet during the study period. Microarray analysis identified 98 differentially expressed genes (79 underexpressed and 19 overexpressed) when comparing the intake of phenol-rich olive oil with low-phenol olive oil. Many of these genes seem linked to obesity, dyslipemia and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Among these, several genes seem involved in inflammatory processes mediated by transcription factor NF-κB, activator protein-1 transcription factor complex AP-1, cytokines, mitogen-activated protein kinases MAPKs or arachidonic acid pathways.ConclusionThis study shows that intake of virgin olive oil based breakfast, which is rich in phenol compounds is able to repress in vivo expression of several pro-inflammatory genes, thereby switching activity of peripheral blood mononuclear cells to a less deleterious inflammatory profile. These results provide at least a partial molecular basis for reduced risk of cardiovascular disease observed in Mediterranean countries, where virgin olive oil represents a main source of dietary fat. Admittedly, other lifestyle factors are also likely to contribute to lowered risk of cardiovascular disease in this region.

The intake of a high-fat diet and grape seed procyanidins induces gene expression changes in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of hamsters: capturing alterations in lipid and cholesterol metabolisms

“…Although some studies have demonstrated the ability of polyphenols administrated in one single dose to induce gene expression changes in PBMCs (Konstantinidou et al 2009;Camargo et al 2010), further acute studies analysing the short-term effects of GSPE on PBMCs gene expression could contribute to shed light on this issue. In addition, new studies focused on the effects of purified molecules obtained from GSPE (i.e.…”

“…The use of these cells in nutrition-related studies is increasing due to the number of different studies performed in both animals and humans that have demonstrated the relationship of PBMCs-captured metabolic changes with the fasting and feeding cycles (Bouwens et al 2007;Caimari et al 2010a, b;Oliver et al 2013) and with the intake of specific nutrients or bioactive food compounds such as fatty acids, proteins, carbohydrates and polyphenols (van Erk et al 2006;Crujeiras et al 2008;Bouwens et al 2009;Konstantinidou et al 2009;Khymenets et al 2009;Bouwens et al 2010;Camargo et al 2010;Rudkowska et al 2011;Van Dijk et al 2012a, b;Tomé-Carneiro et al 2013;van der Velpen et al 2013; Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s12263-014-0438-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. Afman et al 2014).…”

“…In this context, our group and others have reported many healthy beneficial effects of a grape seed procyanidin extract (GSPE) (rich in monomers and oligomers of flavan-3-ols, the most abundant polyphenols in the human diet), on different pathologies clustered within the metabolic syndrome, such as insulin resistance, dyslipidaemia, obesity, hypertension and inflammation (Del Bas et al 2005;Pinent et al 2006;Quesada et al 2009;Bladé et al 2010;Terra et al 2011;Belcaro et al 2013;Caimari et al 2013). Interestingly, some studies have shown that polyphenols, which may be isolated or included in extracts or foods, such as olive oil and cocoa, are also able to regulate the gene expression profiles of PBMCs (Konstantinidou et al 2009;Khymenets et al 2009;Camargo et al 2010;Crescenti et al 2013;Tomé-Carneiro et al 2013;van der Velpen et al 2013). However, to the best of our knowledge, only one study has reported gene expression changes of PBMCs after the consumption of a grape seed extract rich in polyphenols in combination with resveratrol in hypertensive men with type 2 diabetes mellitus (Tomé-Carneiro et al 2013).…”

Virgin olive oil in preventive medicine: From legend to epigenetics

“…These nutrigenomic studies showed that the intake of EVOO rich in phenol compounds, a broad repertoire of chemical entities, can also act together on multiple targets to differentially activate defense, protective and repair epigenetic mechanisms and provide at least a partial molecular basis for reduced risk of atherosclerosis, cardiovascular disease and many other inflammatory diseases as observed in Mediterranean countries, where virgin olive oil represents a main source of dietary fat [119,120].…”

Cardiovascular risk protection from the Mediterranean diet and olive oil. A transcriptomic update in humans

“…They concluded that some genes such as Interleukin-6 (IL6), Interleukin-1 beta (IL1B) and chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 1 (CXCL1) were down-regulated, implying a reduction in the postprandial inflammatory response. Camargo et al, 2010, also conducted another parallel, postprandial trial in 20 metabolic syndrome people, assessing the effect of different polyphenol content olive oils (high content vs low content and control). In this case, they performed a microarray analysis in which they identified differentially expressed genes between the groups, indicating that high-phenolic content VOO is associated to an antiinflammatory process through the gene expression repression mediated by the transcription factor kappaB (NF-Kb), activator protein-1 transcription factor complex (AP-1), cytokines, mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) or arachidonic acid pathways.…”