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Oxidative stress and inflammation have been associated with a wide range of chronic diseases, from The goal of this project is to use an in vitro cell culture model of oxidative stress and inflammation to develop biomarkers that can be used to examine the role of diet in the prevention of chronic disease. Specific Objectives: <OL> <LI> To determine the effects of extracts from common plant foods on measures of antioxidant and antiinflammatory activity in an in vitro model system.<LI>To determine the effects of extracts from common plant foods on measures of antiinflammatory activity in an in vitro model system. <LI> To identify novel biomarkers of antioxidant and antiinflammatory activity that can be applied to animal and or clinical trials. </OL>The primary expected outputs of this project are biomarkers that will relate the consumption particular plant foods to effects on oxidative stress and inflammation endpoints. These biomarkers can then be applied in animal and human clinical trials in order to derive a practical benefit from the studies.
Non-Technical Summary: The prevention of chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and Alzheimer's is important based on the increasing life-span of the US population and the resulting increase in risk for these conditions. Inflammation and oxidative stress have been associated with all of these diseases to differing degrees. Eating foods that are concentrated sources of polyphenolics may be able to delay or prevent some of these chronic diseases by acting as mild anti-inflammatories or by reducing oxidative stress. We plan to study the potential preventive effects of plant foods on chronic disease by examining the connection between their consumption and a spectrum of markers related to inflammation and oxidative stress. <P> Approach: This project will rely primarily on the LPS-Induced RAW 264.7 Raw Cell Model of inflammation. Briefly, RAW cells will be grown in vitro and stimulated to produce a prooxidant/proinflammatory response using either LPS or H2O2. Cells will be either pre-, co-, or post-treated with extracts of common plant foods known to be concentrated sources of polyphenolics (eg., tea or chocolate) in order to determine the effects of these extracts on cell viability, as well as on antioxidant and anti-inflammatory status. This project will be unique, in that we intend to measure multiple markers of oxidative stress and inflammation simultaneously, resulting in a spectrum of responses to a given stimuli, rather than the measurement of a single analyte. In order to translate this research into something practically useful for humans, we intend to use the information gained from these studies to analyze plasma and other samples from previously conducted human clinical trials involving dietary interventions with high polyphenol content plant foods.