Lycopene, the Best Anti-Inflammatory Phytochemical

Inflammation is a natural response of the immune systematics reaction that protects the body against invasive foreign microorganisms.

In the acute phase of infection, the macrophage of the largest white blood cells of the first line of defense not only stimulates the production of blood platelets to the cover the site of damage but also induces production of pro-inflammatory cytokines to fend off foreign invaders.

During the acute phase of infection, depending on the individual immune system capacity, overproduction of proinflammatory cytokines may cause damage to nearby healthy cells, leading to the formation of scars in some people.

Most cases of infection are stopped at the acute phase of infection. The wound is slowly healed itself within a few days or weeks.

However, if the immune system can not destroy all pathogens within a set of period time ( 3 to 8 weeks) it will compromise, leading to chronic inflammation.

In other words, chronic inflammation occurs when the immune response lingers, causing low-grade inflammation. Chronic inflammation over time may damage proteins, lipids, and cell of the body tissues.

The infection may be latent in which the pathogen remains within the body for a long time without producing any symptoms, such as the hepatitis virus.

Diseases associated with chronic inflammation include cancer, heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, type 2 diabetes, and obesity.

Anti-inflammation is a treatment that not reduces inflammation or swelling but also protects the damaged tissue against the formation of scar without affecting the immune function in killing the foreign invaders.

Lycopene is a phytochemical in the class of carotenoid, a natural pigment with no vitamin A activity found abundantly in tomatoes and other red fruits and vegetables, such as red carrots, watermelons, and papayas,

Tomatoes provide about 80% of the lycopene in the world diet. In plants, lycopene protects the host against excessive photodamage and perform various functions in photosynthesis.

With an aim to find potential ingredients with anti-inflammatory property, researchers examined the effects of lycopene on reducing inflammation induced by cigarette smoke (CS).

In vivo, according to the study of 40 mice divided into 5 groups: a control exposed to ambient air (CG), a vehicle-control group that received 200 μl of sunflower oil by orogastric gavage, a group exposed to CS and two groups administered lycopene (diluted in sunflower oil) at doses of either 25 or 50 mg/kg/day prior to exposure to CS (LY25+CS and LY50+CS) for 5 days,
* There was an increase of ROS production in 24 h in CS compared with CG.

* Lycopene administrated at concentrations of 1 μM and 2 μM were able to reduce the production of ROS in 24 h compared with CS.

* Administration with lycopene at the highest dose suppressed the CS-induced increase of leukocytes.

* Lipid peroxidation and DNA damage increased in the CS group compared with that in the controls was also suppressed by lycopene at the highest dose.

* Futhermore, the decrease of superoxide dismutase and catalase activity in the CS group compared with that in the controls were also reduced in LY25+CS and LY50+CS groups.

* Lycopene also inhibited the expression of proteins associated with the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor-α, interferon-γ, and interleukin-10 after exposure to CS.

In vitro, observation of the results of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated SW 480 human colorectal cancer cells found that

* Lycopene at a dose-dependent manner decreased the expression of mRNA associated with protein in the initiation of the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines similar to that of the aforementioned study.


* Lycopene also inhibited the concentrations of mediators prostaglandins -2 (PGE2) and nitric oxide (NO) associated with the onset of inflammation.

* Additionally, lycopene blocks the activation of nuclear transcription factor-κB (NF-κB) and Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) which cause inflammation.

Taken altogether, lycopene found in tomato may be considered supplements for the prevention inflammation, pending on the confirmation of the larger sample size and multicenter human study.

Intake of lycopene in the form of supplement should be taken with extreme care to prevent overdose acute liver toxicity.

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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.

Sources
(1) The antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of lycopene in mice lungs exposed to cigarette smoke by Campos KKD1, Araújo GR2, Martins TL1, Bandeira ACB2, Costa GP3, Talvani A3, Garcia CCM4, Oliveira LAM5, Costa DC2, Bezerra FS. (PubMed)
(2) Anti-inflammatory effect of lycopene in SW480 human colorectal cancer cells by Cha JH1, Kim WK1, Ha AW1, Kim MH2, Chang MJ. (PubMed)