Phytochemical Isothiocyanates, the Cardio-Protective Organic Agent

Bioactive dithiolthiones found in cruciferous vegetables may be the next generation ingredient for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease, some scientists suggested.

Dithiolthiones are phytochemicals in the class of Organosulfides, found abundantly in cruciferous vegetables, garden sorrel, horseradish, etc.

Cardiovascular disease is a class of condition associated with the heart and blood vessels. In other words, CVD can be a result of anything that impedes the function of heart and blood vessels.

According to the CVD statistics, heart disease kills more than 2,000 Americans every day. Approximately 60 million Americans have heart disease.
There are many causes of cardiovascular disease. Most CVD is caused by high blood pressure which contributes to the hardening of the arteries.

Plaques building up inside the arteries as a result of high blood cholesterol and other substances such as calcium overtime can harden and narrow the arteries, leading to a blood clot, a major cause of CVD.

Other risk factors associated with the onset of cardiovascular disease include unhealthy diet, lack of exercise, being overweight and smoking.

Dr. Haskell W, Stanford University, School of Medicine in the examine the lifestyle change in the risk of CVD indicated that there is a strong relationship between the way a person or population lives and their risk for developing or dying from cardiovascular disease (CVD).

How to prevent the onset of CVD
He wrote, "Not smoking, being physically active, eating a heart-healthy diet, staying reasonably lean, and avoiding major stress and depression are the major components of an effective CVD prevention program"/

For people with higher risk CVD, the doctor continued, "medications frequently need to be added to a healthy lifestyle to minimize their risk of a heart attack or stroke, particularly in persons with conditions such as hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, or hyperglycemia".


With an aim to find a natural ingredient or whole food with cardioprotective effect, researchers examined whether sulforaphane protects the heart against I/R injury.

Sprague-Dawley rats selected to the study were given sulforaphane (500microg/kg/day) or vehicle intraperitoneally for 3 days and global ischemia was performed using isolated perfused Langendorff hearts.

Treatment with sulforaphane inhibited an increase in the post-ischemic left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP) and improved the post-ischemic left ventricular developed pressure (LVDP), +/-dP/dt, and coronary flow as compared with the untreated control hearts.


Sulforaphane markedly decreased the infarcted size and attenuated the increased lactate dehydrogenase level in effluent during reperfusion, similar to that of 5-hydroxydecanoic acid (5-HD).

Application of sulforaphane also attenuated the post-ischemia increased the concentration of atrial natriuretic peptide in coronary effluent and decreased levels of free radicals produced during and after injury.

Particularly, sulforaphane also protected the heart cell against damage and apoptosis by promoting heart cell cycle division.


The finding clearly indicated the cardioprotective effect of the sulforaphane against acute I/R injury.

In order to understand the therapeutic effect of sulphoraphane protecting the myocardium from ischaemic reperfusion injury, researchers compared the cardio effects among cooked and fresh broccoli.

The study included two groups of rat fed with fresh (steamed) broccoli or cooked broccoli for 30 d, while a third group was given vehicle only for the same period of time.


At the end of the study, by examing the 30 min ischemia followed by 2 h of reperfusion, researchers surprisingly found that both cooked and steamed broccoli display significantly improved post-ischaemic ventricular function and reduced myocardial infarction and cardiomyocyte apoptosis compared to control, but steamed broccoli showed superior cardioprotective abilities compared with the cooked broccoli.


These results were attributed to the broccoli effect in enhancing the levels of proteins associated with cell survival, increasing the levels of antioxidant and decreasing the levels of proteins associated with cells damage and apoptosis.


More importantly, the expressions of redox proteins (the thioredoxin (Trx)) associated with the reduction of oxidative stress were enhanced only in the steamed broccoli group.

Dr. Mukherjee S, the lead scientist said, "the present study documented superior cardioprotective properties of the steamed broccoli overcooked broccoli because of the ability of fresh broccoli to perform redox signaling of Trx"


Taken altogether, Isothiocyanates or sulforaphane may have a potential effect on the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease.


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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

References

(1) Sulforaphane protects ischemic injury of hearts through antioxidant pathway and mitochondrial K(ATP) channels. by Piao CS1, Gao S, Lee GH, Kim do S, Park BH, Chae SW, Chae HJ, Kim SH. (PubMed)
(2) Comparison of the protective effects of steamed and cooked broccolis on ischaemia-reperfusion-induced cardiac injury. by Mukherjee S1, Lekli I, Ray D, Gangopadhyay H, Raychaudhuri U, Das DK. (PubMed)
(3) Crosstalk between Nrf2 and the proteasome: therapeutic potential of Nrf2 inducers in vascular disease and aging by Chapple SJ1, Siow RC, Mann GE .(PubMed)
(4) Cardiovascular disease prevention and lifestyle interventions: effectiveness and efficacy by Haskell WL. (PubMed)