BLUE BERRY POWDER
Differential effects of blueberry proanthocyanidins on androgen sensitive and insensitive human prostate cancer cell lines
1: Cancer Lett. 2006 Jan 18;231(2):240-6
Differential effects of blueberry proanthocyanidins on androgen sensitive and insensitive human prostate cancer cell lines.
Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1201 S. Dorner Dr, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
Blueberries are rich in health-promoting polyphenolic compounds including proanthocyanidins. The purpose of this study was to determine if proanthocyanidin-rich fractions from both wild and cultivated blueberry fruit have the same inhibitory effects on the proliferation of LNCaP, an androgen-sensitive prostate cancer cell line, and DU145, a more aggressive androgen insensitive prostate cancer cell line. When 20 microg/ml of a wild blueberry proanthocyanidin fraction (fraction 5) was added to LNCaP media, growth was inhibited to 11% of control with an IC50 of 13.3 microg/ml. Two similar proanthocyanidin-rich fractions from cultivated blueberries (fractions 4 and 5) at the same concentration inhibited LNCaP growth to 57 and 26% of control with an IC50 of 22.7 and 5.8 microg/ml, respectively. In DU145 cells, the only fraction that significantly reduced growth compared to control was fraction 4 from cultivated blueberries with an IC50 value of 74.4 microg/ml, indicating only minor inhibitory activity. Differences in cell growth inhibition of LNCaP and DU145 cell lines by blueberry fractions rich in proanthocyanidins indicate that blueberry proanthocyanidins have an effect primarily on androgen-dependant growth of prostate cancer cells. Possible molecular mechanisms for growth inhibition are reviewed.
PMID: 16399225 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
The beneficial effects of fruit polyphenols on brain aging
1: Neurobiol Aging. 2005 Dec;26 Suppl 1:128-32. Epub 2005 Sep 27.
The beneficial effects of fruit polyphenols on brain aging.
Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, Boston, MA 02111, USA.
Brain aging is characterized by the continual concession to battle against insults accumulated over the years. One of the major insults is oxidative stress, which is the inability to balance and to defend against the cellular generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). These ROS cause oxidative damage to nucleic acid, carbohydrate, protein, and lipids. Oxidative damage is particularly detrimental to the brain, where the neuronal cells are largely post-mitotic. Therefore, damaged neurons cannot be replaced readily via mitosis. During normal aging, the brain undergoes morphological and functional modifications resulting in the observed behavioral declines such as decrements in motor and cognitive performance. These declines are augmented by neurodegenerative diseases including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Alzheimer's disease (AD), and Parkinson's disease (PD). Research from our laboratory has shown that nutritional antioxidants, such as the polyphenols found in blueberries, can reverse age-related declines in neuronal signal transduction as well as cognitive and motor deficits. Furthermore, we have shown that short-term blueberry (BB) supplementation increases hippocampal plasticity. These findings are briefly reviewed in this paper.
PMID: 16194581 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Blueberry- and spirulina-enriched diets enhance striatal dopamine recovery and induce a rapid, transient microglia activation after injury of the rat nigrostriatal dopamine system
Blueberry- and spirulina-enriched diets enhance striatal dopamine recovery and induce a rapid, transient microglia activation after injury of the rat nigrostriatal dopamine system
Ingrid Strömberg , Carmelina Gemma, Jennifer Vila and Paula C. Bickford
aDepartment of Integrative Medical Biology, Umeå University, S 901 87 Umeå, Sweden
bJames A Haley Veterans Administration Medical Center, Tampa, FL 33612, USA
cCenter of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair, FL 33612, USA
dDepartment of Neurosurgery, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33612, USA
Received 6 July 2005; revised 2 August 2005; accepted 12 August 2005. Available online 19 September 2005.
Abstract
Neuroinflammation plays a critical role in loss of dopamine neurons during brain injury and in neurodegenerative diseases. Diets enriched in foods with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory actions may modulate this neuroinflammation. The model of 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) injected into the dorsal striatum of normal rats, causes a progressive loss of dopamine neurons in the ventral mesencephalon. In this study, we have investigated the inflammatory response following 6-OHDA injected into the striatum of adult rats treated with diet enriched in blueberry or spirulina. One week after the dopamine lesion, a similar size of dopamine degeneration was found in the striatum and in the globus pallidus in all lesioned animals. At 1 week, a significant increase in OX-6- (MHC class II) positive microglia was found in animals fed with blueberry- and spirulina-enriched diets in both the striatum and the globus pallidus. These OX-6-positive cells were located within the area of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) -negativity. At 1 month after the lesion, the number of OX-6-positive cells was reduced in diet-treated animals while a significant increase beyond that observed at 1 week was now present in lesioned control animals. Dopamine recovery as revealed by TH-immunohistochemistry was significantly enhanced at 4 weeks postlesion in the striatum while in the globus pallidus the density of TH-positive nerve fibers was not different from control-fed lesioned animals. In conclusion, enhanced striatal dopamine recovery appeared in animals treated with diet enriched in antioxidants and anti-inflammatory phytochemicals and coincided with an early, transient increase in OX-6-positive microglia.
Phenolic Compounds from Blueberries Can Inhibit Colon Cancer Cell Proliferation and Induce Apoptosis
Phenolic Compounds from Blueberries Can Inhibit Colon Cancer Cell Proliferation and Induce Apoptosis
Weiguang Yi,
Joan Fischer,
Gerard Krewer,# and Casimir C. Akoh*
Department of Food Science and Technology, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602-7610; Department of Foods and Nutrition, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602-3622; and Department of Horticulture, The University of Georgia, Tifton, Georgia 31793
Received for review June 6, 2005. Revised manuscript received June 21, 2005. Accepted June 21, 2005. Research was funded by the State of Georgia's Traditional Industries Program for Food Processing research grant. We also thank the Georgia Blueberry Growers Association for their support.
Abstract:
Research has shown that diets rich in phenolic compounds may be associated with lower risks of several chronic diseases including cancer. This study systematically evaluated the bioactivities of phenolic compounds in rabbiteye blueberries and assessed their potential antiproliferation and apoptosis induction effects using two colon cancer cell lines, HT-29 and Caco-2. Polyphenols in three blueberry cultivars, Briteblue, Tifblue, and Powderblue, were extracted and freeze-dried. The extracts were further separated into phenolic acids, tannins, flavonols, and anthocyanins using an HLB cartridge and LH20 column. Some individual phenolic acids and flavonoids were identified by HPLC with >90% purity in anthocyanin fractions. The dried extracts and fractions were added to the cell culture medium to test for antiproliferation activities and induction of apoptosis. Flavonol and tannin fractions resulted in 50% inhibition of cell proliferation at concentrations of 70-100 and 50-100 
g/mL in HT-29 and Caco-2 cells, respectively. The phenolic acid fraction showed relatively lower bioactivities with 50% inhibition at ~1000 
g/mL. The greatest antiproliferation effect among all four fractions was from the anthocyanin fractions. Both HT-29 and Caco-2 cell growth was significantly inhibited by >50% by the anthocyanin fractions at concentrations of 15-50 
g/mL. Anthocyanin fractions also resulted in 2-7 times increases in DNA fragmentation, indicating the induction of apoptosis. The effective dosage levels are close to the reported range of anthocyanin concentrations in rat plasma. These findings suggest that blueberry intake may reduce colon cancer risk.
http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/abstract.cgi/jafcau/2005/53/i18/abs/jf051333o.html
Effect of lyophilised Vaccinium berries on memory, anxiety and locomotion in adult rats
1: Pharmacol Res. 2005 Dec;52(6):457-62. Epub 2005 Aug 10.
Effect of lyophilised Vaccinium berries on memory, anxiety and locomotion in adult rats.
Dep. Ciencias Farmaceuticas, Faculdade de Farmacia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. mariarosanar@yahoo.com
Epidemiological studies suggest that diets with a high intake of vegetables and fruits may reduce the incidence of degenerative disorders including Alzheimer's disease. Berries are some of the popular fruits consumed worldwide. They are considered to be rich in anthocyanin pigments, a group belonging to the flavonoids, a widespread class of phenolic compounds. Anthocyanins have notorious pharmacological properties, and have been used in humans for therapeutic purposes. The present experiments were performed to study the possible effects of prolonged administration of lyophilised Vaccinium berries (blueberry, bilberry) on cognitive performance using step-down inhibitory avoidance, open field, elevated plus-maze, and radial maze tasks. During this experiment the rats consumed approximately 3.2 mg kg(-1)day (oral), of the anthocyanins. The lyophilised berries were administered for 30 days before first training. The present study showed that lyophilised berries significantly enhanced short-term memory, but not long-term memory in the inhibitory avoidance task, and induced an increase in the number of crossings in the first exposure to the open field. However, treated rats did not present any improvement of memory retention in open field habituation. Additionally, prolonged treatment with lyophilised berries did not have any significant effects in the elevated plus-maze task. Another interesting finding was that lyophilised berries improved working memory in the radial maze, with significant differences observed during sessions 1-2 and 4, but did not alter reference memory in this task. These results suggest that lyophilised berries may be beneficial in the prevention of memory deficits, one of the symptoms related to AD, and corroborate previous findings showing that flavonoids present effects in several learning paradigms.
PMID: 16098760 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Blueberry supplemented diet reverses age-related decline in hippocampal HSP70 neuroprotection
1: Neurobiol Aging. 2006 Feb;27(2):344-50.
Blueberry supplemented diet reverses age-related decline in hippocampal HSP70 neuroprotection.
Neuroscience Laboratory, USDA-ARS Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, 711 Washington St., Boston, MA 02111, USA.
Dietary supplementation with antioxidant rich foods can decrease the level of oxidative stress in brain regions and can ameliorate age-related deficits in neuronal and behavioral functions. We examined whether short-term supplementation with blueberries might enhance the brain's ability to generate a heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) mediated neuroprotective response to stress. Hippocampal (HC) regions from young and old rats fed either a control or a supplemented diet for 10 weeks were subjected to an in vitro inflammatory challenge (LPS) and then examined for levels of HSP70 at various times post LPS (30, 90 and 240 min). While baseline levels of HSP70 did not differ among the various groups compared to young control diet rats, increases in HSP70 protein levels in response to an in vitro LPS challenge were significantly less in old as compared to young control diet rats at the 30, 90 and 240 min time points. However, it appeared that the blueberry diet completely restored the HSP70 response to LPS in the old rats at the 90 and 240 min times. This suggests that a short-term blueberry (BB) intervention may result in improved HSP70-mediated protection against a number of neurodegenerative processes in the brain. Results are discussed in terms of the multiplicity of the effects of the BB supplementation which appear to range from antioxidant/anti-inflammatory activity to signaling.
PMID: 15869824 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Dietary supplementation with blueberries, spinach, or spirulina reduces ischemic brain damage
1: Exp Neurol. 2005 May;193(1):75-84
Dietary supplementation with blueberries, spinach, or spirulina reduces ischemic brain damage.
National Institute on Drug Abuse, Intramural Research Program, Baltimore, MD 21224, USA.
Free radicals are involved in neurodegenerative disorders, such as ischemia and aging. We have previously demonstrated that treatment with diets enriched with blueberry, spinach, or spirulina have been shown to reduce neurodegenerative changes in aged animals. The purpose of this study was to determine if these diets have neuroprotective effects in focal ischemic brain. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were fed with equal amounts of diets (blueberry, spinach, and spirulina) or with control diet. After 4 weeks of feeding, all animals were anesthetized with chloral hydrate. The right middle cerebral artery was ligated with a 10-O suture for 60 min. The ligature was later removed to allow reperfusional injury. Animals were sacrificed and brains were removed for caspase-3 enzymatic assays and triphenyltetrazolium chloride staining at 8 and 48 h after the onset of reperfusion. A subgroup of animals was used for locomotor behavior and biochemical assays. We found that animals which received blueberry, spinach, or spirulina enriched diets had a significant reduction in the volume of infarction in the cerebral cortex and an increase in post-stroke locomotor activity. There was no difference in blood biochemistry, blood CO2, and electrolyte levels among all groups, suggesting that the protection was not indirectly mediated through the changes in physiological functions. Animals treated with blueberry, spinach, or spirulina had significantly lower caspase-3 activity in the ischemic hemisphere. In conclusion, our data suggest that chronic treatment with blueberry, spinach, or spirulina reduces ischemia/reperfusion-induced apoptosis and cerebral infarction.
PMID: 15817266 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
A natural antioxidant abundant in blueberries called pterostilbene may help prevent colon cancer
Blueberry-rich diet may keep the colon healthy
Mon Mar 26, 2007 5:56PM BST
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A natural antioxidant abundant in blueberries called pterostilbene may help prevent colon cancer, according to an animal study reported Sunday in Chicago at the 233rd national meeting of the American Chemical Society.
"This study underscores the need to include more berries in the diet, especially blueberries," study chief Dr. Bandaru S. Reddy, chemical biologist at Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey, said in a statement.
Pterostilbene is similar to the antioxidant resveratrol found in grapes and red wine, which also has anticancer activity. Pterostilbene is also present in grapes, but it is more abundant in blueberries.
Reddy and colleagues at Rutgers and the US Department of Agriculture induced colon cancer in 18 rats and then fed the animals a balanced diet, with or without pterostilbene (40 mg/kg of diet).
At the end of the study, the nine animals that received pterostilbene supplement had 57-percent fewer pre-cancerous growths in the colon compared with the animals that were fed a balanced diet only.
Pterostilbene also suppressed the growth of cells in the colon and inhibited certain genes involved in inflammation, both of which are considered risk factors for colon cancer.
These results may support dietary prevention of colon cancer and health benefits of blueberries, said Reddy.
Colon cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States and the third most common cancer in men and women. Several genes are associated with the disease. Lifestyle also plays an important role, with smoking, lack of exercise, and a diet high in meat and saturated fat and low in fruits and vegetables all associated with colon cancer.
The evidence suggests that pterostilbene it may help reverse some of the harmful effects of a high-fat diet by lowering cholesterol levels. In a previous study, researchers found in the test tube and in animals that pterostilbene is capable of lowering cholesterol levels.
