Broccoli Inhibits the Onset of Oxidative Stress

Oxidative stress is a medical condition characterized by the imbalance of the ratio of free radicals and antioxidant enzymes produced by the host tissue.


Free radicals are highly reactive molecules with an unpaired electron on the outer ring of the atom.
Due to its nature to become stable, free radicals readily donate or steal an electron from other molecules, leading to the chain of domino's effect that can not be stopped until either the electrons are paired or inhibited by antioxidants.

This chain of reaction is the cause of oxidative stress, a condition associated with either overexpression of free radicals or depletion of antioxidant enzymes produced by the host organs.

In some cases, this reaction also is caused long-term accumulation of toxic substances in the body, such as lead, cadmium, mercury, and arsenic.


Antioxidants are stable atom that plays a critical role in protecting the body against the attack of free radicals.

In other words, antioxidants inhibited the onset of free radicals before they can cause a chain reaction in facilitating protein, lipid, and cell damage.

Antioxidants can either be produced by the liver or intake from dietary sources. Under normal conditions, antioxidant enzymes produced by the body in a healthy individual are good enough to counter the bombardment of free radical attacks.



There is no single cause of oxidative stress. Some researchers suggested that a number of factors can facilitate the onset of oxidative stress, including cigarette smoke, and oxidative burst from activated macrophages, particularly, the free radicals chain reaction.

Sadly, a prolonged period of oxidative stress present in the human body can cause oxidative damage to biomolecules, (lipids, proteins, DNA) and the death of healthy cells through cytotoxicity.

Certain chronic diseases are found to be associated with oxidative stress, including atherosclerosis, cancer, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, post-ischemic perfusion injury, myocardial infarction, cardiovascular diseases, chronic inflammation, and stroke.


Broccoli is a mustard/cabbage plant, belongings to the family Brassicaceae. The vegetable has large flower heads, usually green in color and the mass of flower heads is surrounded by leaves and evolved from a wild cabbage plant on the continent of Europe.


In finding a potential plant that processes anti-oxidative activity researchers examined the efficacy of sulforaphane found in broccoli in protecting alcohol-induced hepatic injury in vivo.

The study included selected male C57BL/6 mice which were orally administrated with broccoli sprout extract (BSE) containing sulforaphane [7.6, 25.2, and 50.4 mg/kg of body weight (bw)] once a day for 14 days.



On the 13th day, mice were challenged with alcohol (5 g/kg of bw) every 12 h for 3 times, which increased malondialdehyde (MDA) levels (4.44 ± 1.24 nmol/mg of protein, p < 0.01) of oxidative stress in the liver.

According to the results of the experiment, the administration of low-, medium-, and high-dose BSE markedly reversed the decrease in antioxidant capacity.


More precisely, BSE increased the levels of antioxidant enzymes such as glutathione (GSH), superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), and glutathione S-transferase (GST) in the liver, compared to control.


The efficacy in protecting the liver from oxidative stress was attributed to the activation of phase 2 enzymes via nuclear erythroid-2-related factor 2 (Nrf2).

Most importantly, BSE also significantly attenuated the levels of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-stress-specific proteins, a defense system that protects cells from ER stress such as glucose-regulated protein 78 (GRP78), activating transcription factor 6, and protein kinase RNA (PKR)-like ER kinase (PERK),


Collectively, researchers said, "These results indicate that BSE protects the liver against alcohol challenge via upregulating antioxidant capacity and downregulating ER stress".


Taken altogether, broccoli may be considered a functional food for the prevention and treatment of diseases associated with oxidative stress, pending the confirmation of the larger sample size and multicenter human study.


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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) Broccoli Sprout Extract Alleviates Alcohol-Induced Oxidative Stress and Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress in C57BL/6 Mice by Lei P1, Zhao W1, Pang B1, Yang X1, Li BL2,3, Ren M4, Shan YJ. (PubMed)