Blueberry and Brain

A 2005 study, published in Cell Transplant, focused on the survival of fetal hippocampal transplants to young (4 months) or middle-aged (16 months) animals with or without dietary supplementation with blueberry extract. Results indicate that fetal hippocampus transplanted to middle-aged host animals exhibits poor survival characterized by reduced growth and compromised tissue organization. However, when middle-aged animals were maintained on a diet supplemented with 2% blueberry extract, hippocampal graft growth was significantly improved and cellular organization of grafts was comparable to that seen in tissue grafted to young host animals (Cell Transplant. 2005;14(4):213-23).

Clinical Abstracts

BHT blocks NF-kappaB activation and ethanol-induced brain damage.

Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2006 Nov;30(11):1938-49

Crews F, Nixon K, Kim D, Joseph J, Shukitt-Hale B, Qin L, Zou J.

Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB 7178, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA. ftcrews@med.unc.edu

BACKGROUND: Binge ethanol administration causes corticolimbic brain damage that models alcoholic neurodegeneration. The mechanism of binge ethanol-induced degeneration is unknown, but is not simple glutamate-N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) excitotoxicity. To test the hypothesis that oxidative stress and inflammation are mechanisms of binge ethanol-induced brain damage, we administered 4 antioxidants, e.g., butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), ebselen (Eb), vitamin E (VE), and blueberry (BB) extract, during binge ethanol treatment and assessed various measures of neurodegeneration. METHODS: Adult Sprague-Dawley rats were treated with intragastric ethanol 3 times per day (8-12 g/kg/d) alone or in combination with antioxidants or isocaloric diet for 4 days. Animals were killed, and brains were perfused and extracted for histochemical silver stain determination of brain damage, markers of neurogenesis, or other immunohistochemistry. Some animals were used for determination of nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kappaB)-DNA binding by electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) or for reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) of cyclooxygenase 2 (COX2). RESULTS: Binge ethanol induced corticolimbic brain damage and reduced neurogenesis. Treatment with BHT reversed binge induced brain damage and blocked ethanol inhibition of neurogenesis in all regions studied. Interestingly, the other antioxidants studied, e.g., Eb, VE, and BB, did not protect against binge-induced brain damage. Binge ethanol treatment also caused microglia activation, increased NF-kappaB-DNA binding and COX2 expression. Butylated hydroxytoluene reduced binge-induced NF-kappaB-DNA binding and COX2 expression. CONCLUSIONS: Binge-induced brain damage and activation of NF-kappaB-DNA binding are blocked by BHT. These studies support a neuroinflammatory mechanism of binge ethanol-induced brain damage.

PMID: 17067360 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Beneficial effects of fruit extracts on neuronal function and behavior in a rodent model of accelerated aging.

Neurobiol Aging. 2006 Jul 10;

Shukitt-Hale B, Carey AN, Jenkins D, Rabin BM, Joseph JA.

USDA-ARS, Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, 711 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02111, United States.

Exposing young rats to particles of high-energy and charge (HZE particles) enhances indices of oxidative stress and inflammation and disrupts the functioning of the dopaminergic system and behaviors mediated by this system in a manner similar to that seen in aged animals. Previous research has shown that diets supplemented with 2% blueberry or strawberry extracts have the ability to retard and even reverse age-related deficits in behavior and signal transduction in rats, perhaps due to their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. This study evaluated the efficacy of these diets on irradiation-induced deficits in these parameters by maintaining rats on these diets or a control diet for 8 weeks prior to being exposed to whole-body irradiation with 1.5Gy of 1GeV/n high-energy (56)Fe particles. Irradiation impaired performance in the Morris water maze and measures of dopamine release 1 month following radiation; these deficits were protected by the antioxidant diets. The strawberry diet offered better protection against spatial deficits in the maze because strawberry-fed animals were better able to retain place information (a hippocampally mediated behavior) compared to controls. The blueberry diet, on the other hand, seemed to improve reversal learning, a behavior more dependent on intact striatal function. These data suggest that (56)Fe particle irradiation causes deficits in behavior and signaling in rats which were ameliorated by an antioxidant diet and that the polyphenols in these fruits might be acting in different brain regions.

PMID: 16837106 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

The beneficial effects of fruit polyphenols on brain aging.

Neurobiol Aging. 2005 Dec;26 Suppl 1:128-32. Epub 2005 Sep 27

Lau FC, Shukitt-Hale B, Joseph JA.

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]