|
|
||||||||
Original Research Communications |
1 From the US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center, Phytonutrients Laboratory, Beltsville, MD.
2 Reference to a company or product name does not imply approval or recommendation of the product by the US Department of Agriculture to the exclusion of others that may be suitable.
3 Supported by H Reisman Corp (Orange, NJ), which provided the lycopene beadlets. The other treatment preparations were supplied by LycoRed Natural Products Industries Ltd (Beer Sheva, Israel).
4 Address reprint request to BA Clevidence, USDA-ARS-BHNRC-PL, Building 308-East, Room 114A, Beltsville, MD 20705. E-mail: clevidence{at}bhnrc.arsusda.gov.
| ABSTRACT |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Objective: Our objective was to monitor lycopene changes in buccal mucosa cells (BMCs) in response to 3 vehicles for oral delivery of lycopene.
Design: Fifteen healthy subjects ingested lycopene-rich tomato juice, tomato oleoresin, lycopene beadlets (each containing 7075 mg lycopene) and a placebo for 4 wk each in a randomized crossover design while consuming self-selected diets. A 6-wk washout period separated the treatment periods. BMCs were collected at baseline and after 4 wk of supplementation.
Results: Lycopene in BMCs increased significantly (
2-fold) after 4 wk of ingestion of oleoresin and of beadlets to 4.95 (P < 0.001) and 3.75 µg/g protein (P = 0.053), respectively, but was not significantly affected by tomato juice treatment. The placebo treatment produced a significant decrease in BMC lycopene concentrations (P = 0.018). We observed significant treatment differences between oleoresin and tomato juice, oleoresin and placebo, and beadlets and placebo. BMC concentrations of phytofluene and ß-carotene, which were present in small amounts in the lycopene-containing treatments, increased significantly with ingestion of these products. Strong correlations were found between plasma and BMC concentrations of lutein, ß-cryptoxanthin,
-carotene, and ß-carotene. In contrast, correlations between lycopene concentrations in plasma and in BMCs were weak and not significant for any treatment.
Conclusions: The cellular content of lycopene and other tomato-related carotenoids with proposed beneficial health effects can be increased through prolonged supplementation.
Key Words: Lycopene phytofluene carotenoids buccal cells plasma tomato juice oleoresin beadlets humans
| INTRODUCTION |
|---|
|
|
|---|
In a previous report, we compared the plasma lycopene response produced by consumption of lycopene from a food source to that produced by lycopene supplements (12). Here, we extend those findings with results of a study on the effect of supplementation on the carotenoid concentrations in BMCs. We also examined correlations between plasma concentrations and BMC concentrations of various carotenoids.
| SUBJECTS AND METHODS |
|---|
|
|
|---|
2 cups) containing 74.9 mg lycopene), oleoresin soft-gel capsules (4 capsules/d containing 75.4 mg lycopene), or lycopene beadlets (15 capsules/d containing 70.2 mg lycopene). The test materials were consumed in 2 equal portions at breakfast and lunch, each with 4.5 g butter. The treatment preparations were supplied by LycoRed Natural Products Industries Ltd (Beer Sheva, Israel). The lycopene beadlets (H Reisman Corp, Orange, NJ) are a water dispersible formulation of the lipophilic tomato oleoresin. The carotenoid concentrations of the test materials were determined in our laboratory by HPLC before the study (13) (Table 1
|
Collection and extraction of BMCs
BMCs were collected at baseline and after 4 wk of supplementation before breakfast,
20 h after the last treatment (lunch). Subjects rinsed their mouths with deionized water and discarded the rinse. They then scraped the inside of their cheeks with a plastic spoon (5 times on each side), rinsed their mouths with 20 mL deionized water, and deposited the rinsing solution in a 50-mL centrifuge tube (16). Cells were rinsed off the spoon with deionized water and added to the centrifuge tube. The cell suspension was centrifuged at 800 x g for 10 min at 4°C. The supernate was discarded, the cells were packed in 1 mL physiologic saline plus 100 µL butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) solution (2 g/L ethanol) and stored at -70°C. For the analysis, cells were thawed in a water bath at 37°C and washed twice with cool, phosphate-buffered saline (PBS). The cells were suspended in 5 mL PBS, from which 4 mL was used for the carotenoid analysis and 0.75 mL for the protein assay.
For the carotenoid extraction, the cells were centrifuged, the supernate was removed, and the cells were suspended in 1 mL PBS containing 0.5 g BHT/L and 0.2% pronase E (from Streptomyces griseus; Sigma Chemical Co, St Louis). After incubation at 37°C for 37 min, 400 µL of 10 g sodium dodecyl sulfate/L in ethanol containing 0.5 g BHT/L was added and the sample was vortex mixed for 1 min (17). The cells were extracted twice with 5 mL hexane. Hexane was evaporated under nitrogen, the residue was dissolved in 100 µL HPLC mobile phase, and 80 µL was injected into the HPLC system (series 1100 with diode array detection; Hewlett Packard, Palo Alto, CA). The mobile phase consisted of 65% acetonitrile, 25% methylene chloride, 10% methanol, 1 g BHT/L, and 0.1 mL N,N-diisopropylethylamine/L. Analytes were eluted from a Rainin Microsorb-MV reversed-phase C18 column (1 nm, 0.46 x 25 cm; Emeryville, CA) under isocratic conditions within 30 min at a flow rate of 0.80 mL/min. Carotenoid concentrations in BMCs are expressed as µg/g protein. For the protein assay, the cells were centrifuged, the supernate was removed, and cells were lysed with 50 µL of 4 mol guanidinium isothiocyanate buffer/L. A 1:64 or 1:128 diluted cell suspension was used in the bicinchoninic acid protein assay (Micro BCA Protein assay; Pierce Chemical Co, Rockford, IL). Plasma carotenoids were extracted and quantified as described above and as described in greater detail previously (12).
Statistical analysis
Data were analyzed by using SIGMASTAT 2.03 (SPSS, Inc, Chicago) software. Descriptive statistics were used to compute means and SEMs. Significant differences from baseline and between treatments were measured by repeated-measures analysis of variance on log-transformed data. Tukey's test was used to make pairwise comparisons when the F test result was significant. To assess the plasma-BMC relation of carotenoid concentrations, Spearman correlation coefficients were computed from data corresponding to a single day at the end of each treatment. A P value
0.05 was considered statistically significant for all tests.
| RESULTS |
|---|
|
|
|---|
2-fold after 4 wk of oleoresin and beadlet ingestion, to 4.95 and 3.75 µg/g protein, respectively, but was not significantly affected by tomato juice treatment (Table 2
|
|
|
|
-carotene were significant during oleoresin, beadlet, and placebo treatments but not during the tomato juice treatment. In contrast, the correlation between lycopene in BMCs and in plasma was not significant for any of the treatments, and correlations for lycopene were generally weaker than were correlations for other hydrocarbon carotenes.
|
| DISCUSSION |
|---|
|
|
|---|
It was shown that concentrations of ß-carotene in plasma and BMCs can be increased by ß-carotene ingestion (1922). Oral administration of ß-carotene results in marked plasma responses (7), whereas lycopene ingestion produces no (68) or moderate responses (912). The moderate plasma response observed with supplementation of lycopene may be explained by rapid tissue uptake. Therefore, it is important to monitor changes in tissue lycopene concentrations, although limited availability of tissue biopsies makes this difficult. BMCs are a tissue that can be collected noninvasively and analyzed for carotenoid content (17, 22).
In this study, we showed that chronic ingestion of lycopene-containing products resulted in elevated lycopene concentrations in BMCs. The increase in BMC lycopene that occurred during tomato juice ingestion was not significant, whereas the changes during oleoresin and beadlet treatment were significant. Note, however, that lycopene concentrations in BMCs fell by about one-half after subjects consumed the placebo treatment. Thus, it appears that substantial amounts of lycopene were transported to BMCs after treatment not only with supplements but also with tomato juice. In contrast with BMCs, plasma concentrations of lycopene increased significantly after all 3 lycopene-containing treatments (Table 3
). The most likely reason for this difference in plasma and BMC response is that the delayed increase in plasma concentrations of lycopene from tomato juice (Figure 2
) limited the ability of this carotenoid to accumulate in BMCs. The plasma concentration-time curve for lycopene during tomato juice feeding was below those during the oleoresin and beadlet feedings throughout the study period; however, they were not significantly different beyond week 2. Because we collected BMCs only at baseline and after 4 wk of supplementation, we do not know the time required for BMC lycopene concentrations to begin to increase. It is possible that the increase caused by tomato juice would have been significant with a longer treatment period.
The BMC data suggest that elevated plasma lycopene concentrations must be present for a prolonged time before there is significant accumulation of lycopene in the superficial layer of the buccal epithelium, which we collected by scraping the insides of the cheeks. A factor that should be considered with regard to the observed effect is the turnover rate of BMCs. The buccal epithelium is a nonkeratinized tissue with a shorter turnover time than keratinized oral epithelium (23). Reported turnover times for buccal epithelium are not consistent and vary from 5 to 25 d (24, 25). Cells from the basal layer (stratum basale) migrate through the prickle cell and intermediate layer to the superficial layer (stratum distendum). During the tomato juice treatment period, the cells of the basal layer were exposed to elevated plasma lycopene concentrations, comparable with those achieved during beadlet and oleoresin treatments, for 14 d (weeks 24). During the beadlet and oleoresin treatments, plasma concentrations were elevated for
21 d. A turnover rate for BMCs >14 d, ie, the time it takes basal cells to become superficial cells, would imply that the buccal cells of the basal layer must be subjected to high plasma lycopene concentrations before week 2 to see a significant rise in the cellular lycopene content of the superficial layer at week 4.
We observed a moderate but significant increase from baseline of plasma lycopene concentrations with tomato juice, oleoresin, and beadlets treatments: 42%, 40%, and 41% at 4 wk, respectively. In fact, plasma lycopene concentrations plateaued at
2 wk of supplementation; from that point on, there were no significant differences between treatments. The moderate plasma lycopene response, relative to that of other common carotenoids, may have been due to one or a combination of several factors: 1) decreased absorption of lycopene by the intestine, 2) increased excretion of lycopene through the bile, or 3) increased tissue uptake of lycopene. We found a 2.5- and 2-fold increase of BMC lycopene during oleoresin and beadlet treatment, respectively. Tomato juice ingestion produced a 25% increase in BMC lycopene concentrations; however, this change was not significant. This finding was unexpected. Not only were plasma concentrations of lycopene not significantly different by treatment, but the distribution of lycopene among plasma lipoproteins, the carriers of carotenoids to tissues, also did not differ significantly (12). A 2-fold increase in cellular lycopene content does not seem extraordinary and increased tissue uptake is unlikely to be responsible for the small increments in plasma lycopene observed in this and other studies. Other carotenoids, such as ß-carotene, have been shown to increase substantially in plasma and BMCs concurrently with ingestion (19, 22). Of course, tissues other than BMCs may selectively accumulate more lycopene.
Because BMCs can be collected by noninvasive procedures, the strength of the correlation between plasma and BMC carotenoid concentrations is of interest. If carotenoid concentrations in BMCs accurately reflect plasma concentrations, it will no longer be necessary to draw a blood sample to evaluate the carotenoid status of individuals. Results from previous studies are contradictory, suggesting no correlation (26) or a good correlation (17) between plasma and BMC carotenoids.
Here, we showed a significant correlation between plasma and BMC concentrations of lutein, ß-cryptoxanthin,
-carotene, and ß-carotene, suggesting that cellular carotenoid concentrations are good biomarkers for plasma concentrations of these carotenoids. Interestingly, such correlations for lycopene were weak and not significant for any of the treatments. Thus, unlike most of the major dietary carotenoids, lycopene in BMCs does not reflect plasma lycopene concentrations.
This study showed that carotenoid concentrations in BMCs can be significantly increased by prolonged (4 wk) intake of tomato-derived products. Tissue uptake and utilization of carotenoids are important aspects to consider when addressing their bioavailability. An important finding of this study was the strong correlations between tissue and plasma concentrations for several major carotenoids. The notable exception was lycopene, the focus of this study, for which there was not a significant correlation between plasma and BMC concentrations. It appears that buccal cell carotenoid concentrations reflect plasma concentrations of most but not all of the major dietary carotenoids.
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
|---|
| REFERENCES |
|---|
|
|
|---|
-tocopherol, ß-carotene, retinol, and subsequent bladder cancer. Cancer Res 1989;49:61448.This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
A. R. Kristal and J. M. Schenk Directions for Future Epidemiological Research in Lycopene and Prostate Cancer Risk J. Nutr., August 1, 2005; 135(8): 2037S - 2039S. [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
M. Richelle, K. Bortlik, S. Liardet, C. Hager, P. Lambelet, M. Baur, L. A. Applegate, and E. A. Offord A Food-Based Formulation Provides Lycopene with the Same Bioavailability to Humans as That from Tomato Paste J. Nutr., March 1, 2002; 132(3): 404 - 408. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |