Anti-Wrinkle and Skin Moisture Efficacy of 7-MEGATM: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo Comparative Clinical Trial.

7-MEGATM is a food product made from purified Alaska pollack fish oil containing palmitoleic acid (16:1), commonly referred to as omega-7. We sought to quantitatively evaluate whether this substance inhibits skin aging. A total of 101 middle-aged females were randomly allocated to the intervention (N = 50) or placebo group (N = 51). Each participant was advised to take either 500 mg of 7-MEGATM or a placebo twice daily for 12 weeks. The primary outcomes were the degree of improvement in wrinkles and the degree of moisture filling after consumption for 12 weeks compared to baseline. The secondary outcomes were improvement in skin wrinkles; moisture changes at 4 and 8 weeks from baseline; changes in transdermal water loss, skin elasticity, the melanin index, the erythema index, and the Global Photo Damage Score. We found a significant improvement in skin wrinkles and elasticity at 12 weeks in the 7-MEGATM-consuming group compared to that in the placebo group; skin moisture, elasticity, and the melanin index were also improved. No supplement-related adverse reactions were observed and 7-MEGATM was identified as safe. 7-MEGATM was effective for human skin function in terms of wrinkles, moisture, elasticity, and melanin production and may be useful as a skin nutritional supplement.

Effect of Korean Red Ginseng on metabolic syndrome.

Metabolic syndrome (MS) refers to a clustering of at least three of the following medical conditions: high blood pressure, abdominal obesity, hyperglycemia, low high-density lipoprotein level, and high serum triglycerides. MS is related to a wide range of diseases which includes obesity, diabetes, insulin resistance, cardiovascular disease, dyslipidemia, or non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. There remains an ongoing need for improved treatment strategies for MS. The most important risk factors are dietary pattern, genetics, old age, lack of exercise, disrupted biology, medication usage, and excessive alcohol consumption, but pathophysiology of MS has not been completely identified. Korean Red Ginseng (KRG) refers to steamed/dried ginseng, traditionally associated with beneficial effects such as anti-inflammation, anti-fatigue, anti-obesity, anti-oxidant, and anti-cancer effects. KRG has been often used in traditional medicine to treat multiple metabolic conditions. This paper summarizes the effects of KRG in MS and related diseases such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, insulin resistance, diabetes, dyslipidemia, or non-alcoholic fatty liver disease based on experimental research and clinical studies.

The Role of the Gut Microbiome in Liver Cirrhosis Treatment.

Liver cirrhosis is one of the most prevalent chronic liver diseases worldwide. In addition to viral hepatitis, diseases such as steatohepatitis, autoimmune hepatitis, sclerosing cholangitis and Wilson's disease can also lead to cirrhosis. Moreover, alcohol can cause cirrhosis on its own and exacerbate chronic liver disease of other causes. The treatment of cirrhosis can be divided into addressing the cause of cirrhosis and reversing liver fibrosis. To this date, there is still no clear consensus on the treatment of cirrhosis. Recently, there has been a lot of interest in potential treatments that modulate the gut microbiota and gut-liver axis for the treatment of cirrhosis. According to recent studies, modulation of the gut microbiome by probiotics ameliorates the progression of liver disease. The precise mechanism for relieving cirrhosis via gut microbial modulation has not been identified. This paper summarizes the role and effects of the gut microbiome in cirrhosis based on experimental and clinical studies on absorbable antibiotics, probiotics, prebiotics, and synbiotics. Moreover, it provides evidence of a relationship between the gut microbiome and liver fibrosis.

Antioxidant Activity of Royal Jelly Hydrolysates Obtained by Enzymatic Treatment.

Recently, research on the processing of raw functional materials with the aim of improving various physiological activities has been conducted. In this study, we investigated the antioxidant activity of royal jelly (RJ) hydrolysates obtained from three commercial proteases. Enzyme-treated royal jelly (ERJ), in which the RJ hydrolysates were converted into easy-to-absorb shorter chain monomers through the removal of two known allergen proteins, showed no difference in the content of (E)-10-hydroxydec-2-enoicacid (10-HDA) or the freshness parameter and showed a significant increase in total free amino acid content. The antioxidant activity of ERJ was determined by 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and chemical assays. The ERJ showed about 80% DPPH-radical scavenging activity at same concentration of ascorbic acid. The antioxidant effect of ERJ was confirmed to be due to reduction of intracellular reactive oxidative species (ROS) and nitric oxide (NO) production in LPS-treated macrophages. Moreover, ERJ significantly increased the activity of the antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase (SOD) and the level of the antioxidant glutathione (GSH) in a dose-dependent manner. Interestingly, these antioxidant activities of ERJ were stronger than those of non-treated RJ. These findings indicate that ERJ has high potential as an antioxidant agent for use in human and animal diets.

Comparison of sensory tests and neuronal quantity of peripheral nerves between streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats and paclitaxel (PAC)-treated rats.

Although diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) and chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) are different disease entities, they share similar neuropathic symptoms that impede quality of life for these patients. Despite having very similar downstream effects, there have been no direct comparisons between DPN and CIPN with respect to symptom severity and therapeutic responses. We compared peripheral nerve damage due to hyperglycemia with that caused by paclitaxel (PAC) treatment as represented by biochemical parameters, diverse sensory tests, and immunohistochemistry of cutaneous and sciatic nerves. The therapeutic effects of alpha-lipoic acid and DA-9801 were also compared in the two models. Animals were divided into seven groups (n = 7-10) as follows: normal, diabetes (DM), DM + alpha-lipoic acid 100 mg/kg (ALA), DM + DA-9801 (100 mg/kg), paclitaxel-treated rat (PAC), PAC + ALA (100 mg/kg), and PAC + DA-9801 (100 mg/kg). The sensory thresholds of animals to mechanical, heat, and pressure stimuli were altered by both hyperglycemia and PAC when compared with controls, and the responses to sensory tests were different between both groups. There were no significant differences in the biochemical markers of blood glutathione between DM and PAC groups (p > .05). Quantitative comparisons of peripheral nerves by intraepidermal nerve fiber density (IENFD) analysis indicated that the DM and PAC groups were similar (6.18 ± 1.03 vs. 5.01 ± 2.57). IENFD was significantly improved after ALA and DA-9801 treatment in diabetic animals (7.6 ± 1.28, 7.7 ± 1.28, respectively, p < .05) but did not reach significance in the PAC-treated groups (6.05 ± 1.76, 5.66 ± 1.26, respectively, p > .05). Sciatic nerves were less damaged in the PAC-treated groups compared with the DM groups with respect to axonal diameter and area (8.60 ± 1.14 µm vs. 6.66 ± 1.07 µm, and 59.04 ± 15.16 µm2 vs. 35.71 ± 11.2 µm2, respectively, p < .05). Based on these results, the neuropathic manifestation and therapeutic responses of DPN may be different from other peripheral neuropathies. Therefore, specific pathogenic consideration according to peripheral neuropathy classification in addition to common treatments needs to be developed for management strategies of peripheral neuropathies.

Anti-Proliferation Effects of Garlic (Allium sativum L.) on the Progression of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia.

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is a urologic disease that affects most of men over the age 50. But until now there is no such perfect cure without side effects. Because of diverse adverse effects, it is desirable to develop effective and long term-safety-herbal medicines to inhibit the progress of BPH. In spite of garlic's large use and a wide spectrum of studies, including anti-hyperlipidemic, cardio-protective, and anti-inflammatory activities, there was none to prove efficacy for BPH. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of garlic to prove its suppressing effects on BPH. Garlic administration decreased relative prostate weight ratio, suppressed mRNA expression level of AR, DHT serum levels, and the growth of prostatic tissue in BPH-induced rats. Moreover, garlic administration decreased the levels of inflammatory proteins, iNOS, and COX-2 in prostatic tissue. Further investigation showed that garlic induced accumulation of death-inducing signal complex and activation of AMPK and decreased the levels of anti-apoptotic proteins, such as Bcl-2, Bcl-xL, and survivin. These results suggest that garlic may have suppressing effects on BPH and it has great potential to be developed as treatment for BPH. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Topographical Analysis of Non-Glaucomatous Myopic Optic Discs Using a Confocal Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope (TopSS).

OBJECTIVES: To show normative data of optic discs and the mechanism of glaucoma in people with myopia. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. PARTICIPANTS: This study investigated 89 Korean adults with myopia but without glaucoma. METHODS: Patients were divided into three groups according to the refractive error: low, moderate, and high; and axial length: normal or below normal length, moderately long, and extremely long. Optic disc variables were obtained by confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscope and compared among groups. RESULTS: The optic disc parameters have a correlation between the refractive error and the optic disc parameters such as average depth, volume below, and half-depth volume. Those parameters also decreased as the axial length increased. The thickness of the volume above decreased significantly as the axial length increased, but a similar relationship was not evident with the refractive error change. In addition, the optic disc parameters were analyzed with respect to the 12 clockwise directions. CONCLUSIONS: Analyses of optic disc parameters provided by TopSS™ revealed the height of the disc decreased as the myopic refractive error and/or axial length increased. The RNFL bundle became compacted in the thinner disc of the myopic population. This could be an explanation for the fragility of the RNFL in the myopic population. The 12 radial section analyses revealed the shallow cupping at the temporal side in the high-myopic, very-long-axis group. The neuroretinal rim (NRR) height significantly decreased at the superior and inferior sides. These findings suggest that the RNFL bundle should be under high mechanical strain in these sectors.

Rubus coreanus Miquel inhibits acetylcholinesterase activity and prevents cognitive impairment in a mouse model of dementia.

To find acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors for the prevention of neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease, ethanol extracts of promising traditional edible Korean plants were tested. Among them, Rubus coreanus Miquel extract exhibited the most significant AChE inhibitory activity. The effect of R. coreanus extract on trimethyltin-induced memory impairment in mice was investigated using Y-maze and passive avoidance tests. Our results showed that administration of R. coreanus extract significantly improved alternation behavior and step-through latency. In addition, R. coreanus extract was sequentially fractionated, and the purified constituent was determined to be 3,4,5-trihydroxybenzoic acid.

Comparison of hypolipidemic activity of synthetic gallic acid-linoleic acid ester with mixture of gallic acid and linoleic acid, gallic acid, and linoleic acid on high-fat diet induced obesity in C57BL/6 Cr Slc mice.

Hyperlipidemia is the major risk factors of heart disease such as atherosclerosis, stroke, and death. In the present study, we studied the effect of gallic acid (GA), linoleic acid (LA), mixture of GA and LA (MGL), and chemically synthesized gallic acid-linoleic acid ester (octadeca-9,12-dienyl-3,4,5-trihydroxybenzoate, GLE) on the ability to ameliorate hyperlipidemia in C57BL/6 mice fed a high-fat diet (HFD). GLE, GA, LA, and MGL were mixed with HFD and the composition of the test compounds were 1% of the diet for 7 weeks. After 7 weeks, the average body weight of ND and GLE groups was lower than that of HFD group (P<0.05). The liver weight of mice decreased (P<0.05) in all treatment groups relative to HFD fed group. The plasma lipids such as triglyceride and LDL-cholesterol were found to be decreased (P<0.05) in GLE, GA, LA, and MGL fed mice when compared to that of HFD fed mice. But high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol increased (P<0.05) in HFD and GLE fed mice when compared to that of ND fed mice. The hepatic accumulation of fat droplets of GA, LA, GLE, and MGL group showed considerably lower than that of HFD group. Adipose histology showed that GLE supplementation was found to be more effective in decreasing the size of adipocyte relative to those of other treatment groups. In conclusion, the supplementation of synthetic GLE from gallic acid and linoleic acid ester may have a potential hypolipidemic effect on mice fed high-fat diet. Further studies are required to prove GLE as a hypolipidemic agent.