Resveratrol helps counteract the effects of a high-fat diet
High-fat diet: Resveratrol helps counteract its effects
Resveratrol is able to prevent the negative effects of a diet too high in fat. In particular, this natural molecule would appear to protect cells from 'apoptosis, a mechanism of cell death promoted by oxidative stress that is a consequence of a fat-dominated diet.
This was discovered by a team of researchers from China's School of Food Science and Technology in Jiangsu, China. The results of the discovery were published in the Journal of Food Science.
Resveratrol: a powerful antioxidant
Resveratrol is a naturally occurring polyphenolic compound found in certain foods including grapes, berries, and peanuts. This molecule has an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effect. It has been shown by numerous studies that a diet high in saturated fat is a significant health risk factor and is related to increased oxidative stress. This type of diet promotes dysfunction of the mitochondria, the organelles responsible for energy production in the cell but also for the formation of oxygen free radicals, the cause of oxidative damage. Mitochondrial dysfunction is one of the major events that activate the mechanisms of programmed cell death (apoptosis), during oxidative stress caused by a high-fat diet. The same Chinese researchers had already reported in previous studies how various immune functions are altered in mice fed a high-fat diet, indicating that the inflammatory state found in obese individuals could be related to excessive nutrient intake.
Protection for immune system cells
The team studied 24 mice by dividing them into three groups; one that followed a normal diet, one that followed a high-fat diet, and the last one subjected to a high-fat diet with the addition of 0.06 percent resveratrol. After twenty weeks, samples from the laboratory animals, blood and spleen, were analyzed for counts of certain cells of the immune system: regulatory T cells. The analyses showed that while regulatory T cells in the blood and spleen from mice that had consumed a lot of fat were reduced due to apoptosis, their survival was increased in animals that had received resveratrol. The molecule also appeared to be associated with decreased production of reactive oxygen species and decline in mitochondrial function, observed instead in regulatory T lymphocytes from animals that had been fed a fat diet. Resveratrol also was able to increase the expression of the molecule PGC-1a, a regulator of new mitochondria formation.
Resveratrol increases the number of mitochondria and regulates their function
The results of this study show that resveratrol was able to protect regulatory T cells from apoptosis induced by high-fat diet by a complex cellular mechanism. Its action decreased oxidative stress and increased the number and regulation of mitochondria. These results help to better understand the inflammatory response induced by the high-fat diet and provide a potential interventional strategy for cell recovery by incorporating resveratrol into the diet.
Source: Wong, BIN et al. Resveratrol Preserves Mitochondrial Function, Stimulates Mitochondrial Biogenesis, and Attenuates Oxidative Stress in Regulatory T Cells of Mice Fed a High-Fat Diet. Journal of Food Science, 2014 (1).
