(Poly)phenol‐Rich Diets in the Management of Endothelial Dysfunction in Diabetes Mellitus: Biological Properties in Cultured Endothelial Cells

Abstract

Processed and ready‐to‐eat foods become routinely consumed resulting in a sharp rise of sugar intake in people's daily diets. The inclusion of fresh fruits and vegetables rich in (poly)phenols has been encouraged by the World Health Organization (WHO) as part of the daily choices to ameliorate endothelial dysfunction and ease the socio‐economic burden of diabetes. Research in Food, Nutrition, and Cell Metabolism areas is revealing that the health benefits of (poly)phenol‐rich foods go beyond their antioxidant properties and are in fact key modulators of redox and glycaemia status, and inflammatory response contributing to improved endothelial function and vascular health in diabetes. Other beneficial aspects include appetite modulation, regulation of hydrolytic enzymes involved in sugar and lipid metabolism, and mediation of cell–cell aggregation events. This work overviews the current knowledge on the biological properties of ingested (poly)phenols in cultured endothelial cells with emphasis on the circulating (poly)phenols, providing support to (poly)phenol‐rich diets as alternatives to drug‐based therapies in the prevention, treatment, and management of diabetes. A critical evaluation on the caveats and challenges involve in current experimental cell‐based designs and approaches adopted is also discussed.

Neurotoxicity and Structure-Activity Relationships of Resveratrol and its two Natural Analogs, 4,4′-Dihydroxystilbene and Pinosylvin

“…Both the DHS and PIN treatments resulted in significantly reduced axon lengths of motor neurons compared with the RES treatment (P < .001) (Table 1, entries 11-15). Compared with the DHS treatment group, the motor neuronal axon length was significantly reduced in the PIN treatment group at concentrations of 0.1 and 1 μg/mL (Table 1, entries [16][17][18].…”

“…Natural polyphenols often have a series of good biological functions such as antioxidant, [1][2][3] anti-radiation, [4][5][6] antiinflammatory, [7][8][9] antibacterial, [10][11][12] and anti-tumor, [13][14][15] and are used for the treatment of various diseases, including obesity, 16 diabetes, 17,18 tumor and cardiovascular. 19,20 Several studies suggest that dietary polyphenols can be a strategy for obesity management, helping to recover or preserve gut health through anti-inflammatory and antioxidant actions.…”

Modelling Hyperglycaemia in an Epithelial Membrane Model: Biophysical Characterisation

“…At the cellular level, endothelial dysfunction is accompanied by the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines with disruption of endothelial cell bioenergetics [ 4 , 5 , 6 ]. In addition to this, in vitro cellular studies in human endothelial umbilical vein endothelial cells have equally shown that hyperglycaemia alters the biophysical properties of epithelial membranes by stiffening of the lipid bilayer [ 7 ].…”