Noves eines per a la caracterització d'efectes funcionals de derivats vegetals sobre mecanismes bàsics de l'envelliment i patologies associades

Resumen

There is an agreement which considers that diet is one of the most relevant phenotype aspects that modulates the physiology of the individual. The study of the effect of diet on our system requires in vitro and in vivo methodology, which has a high potential of transferring the positive results to the population through food providers. In this work different methods have been used and when put together, this could be a very useful tool for the characterization of a great amount of vegetal extracts on the human physiology. This novel tool has allowed us to choose the best extracts for the study of its functional effects on the basic mechanisms of the ageing and associated pathologies. Using these in vitro methods, its correlation with in vivo data has been proved, through analysing the effect of extracts derived from three vegetable extracts (hazelnut, almond and carob) on the organism of a healthy animal model. Thus, the bioaccessibilty and/or bioavailability of phenolic compounds present and the modulated effect the ingestion of these extracts has on plasmatic lipodome and metabolome, has been demonstrated. All the extracts increase the antioxidant capacity in the cecum content. Plus, the ingestion of an extract derived from hazelnuts increases the high density lipoprotein cholesterol and decreases the triacylglyceride blood levels while different protein oxidation markers in the skeletal muscle decreases. In addition the extract derived from carob decreases the blood cholesterol and triacylglyceride levels. All the changes the ingestion of these extracts have had in mice improve the parameters related to ageing and associated pathologies. In the second in vivo experiment we present, we have studied the effect of a grape seed extract on a model animal with atheromatosis, the hamster. On the one hand, the results confirm that the ingestion of a high fat diet induces changes both in the plasmatic and aortic metabolome and lipodome and at the same time increases the oxidation of the lipoproteins in plasma which could explain the development of atherosclerosis in this model. On the other hand, in this model, the grape seed extract produces a protective effect concerning atherosclerosis increasing the antioxidant capacity of the plasma and reducing the oxidation of the lipoproteins. Moreover, it has been proved that the ingestion of this extract decreases the aortic concentration of the parameters related to the development of the atheroma plaque. Finally, a potential plasmatic biomarker of atheromatosis has been identified: taurocholic acid. The taurocholic acid levels correlate with the aortic concentration of non esterified cholesterol, proving that the ingestion of the grape seed extract has the capacity to modulate the levels of this molecule.