Relationship of coffee consumption with risk factors of atherosclerosis in rats.

Aims: In experimental animals we investigated the relationship of coffee consumption with risk factors of atherosclerosis such as cholesterol, homocysteine, oxidative stress and inflammatory cytokines.

Methods: Forty-eight male Wistar rats were assigned to 3 treatment groups (a control diet group, 0.62% coffee diet group, and 1.

Homocysteine attenuates the expression of osteocalcin but enhances osteopontin in MC3T3-E1 preosteoblastic cells.

It has been pointed out that very high plasma levels of homocysteine are characteristic of homocystinuria, a rare autosomal recessive disease accompanied by the early onset of generalized osteoporosis. However, it is unclear by which mechanism hyperhomocysteine induces osteoporosis, although it is known to interfere with the formation of cross-links in collagen, an essential process in bone formation. Therefore, we investigated the effect of homcysteine on expression of osteocalcin and osteopontin in MC3T3-E1 preosteoblastic cells.

The effect of vitamin K2 on bone metabolism in aged female rats.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) may contribute to aging and osteoporosis resulting from marked decreases in plasma antioxidants in aged osteoporotic women. On the other hand, high-dose vitamin K2 (menaquinone-4: menatrenone, MK-4) supplementation has been reported to reduce ovariectomy-induced bone loss in rats and to decrease osteoporotic fracture in postmenopausal women. However, the mechanism by which vitamin K2 prevents osteoporosis is unclear.

Bone metabolism and oxidative stress in postmenopausal rats with iron overload.

Osteoporosis is associated with many etiological causes such as nutrition, cytokines, hormones, and aging. Recently, reactive oxygen species (ROS) are considered to be responsible for the aging process and osteoporosis. We investigated the relationship between ROS and bone metabolism in young female and postmenopausal rats, by using dietary iron overload and several indices including bone metabolic markers, oxidative stress and antioxidant markers, and cytokines.

Coffee increases levels of urinary 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine in rats.

We examined whether coffee or chlorogenic acid inhibits 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), one of the major forms of oxidative DNA damage, in vivo and in vitro. Forty-eight male Wistar rats were assigned to three treatment groups: a control-diet group (n=16; coffee-free diet), a 0.62% coffee-diet group (n=16, dose of coffee consumed 125 mg/day), and a 1.

Secretion of macrophage migration inhibitory factor differs from interleukin-6 in hydrogen peroxide- and LPS-stimulated human fibroblasts.

To investigate the mechanism for secretion of macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) in cultured human fibroblasts, we compared it with the secretion of interleukin-6 (IL-6) after stimulation with lipopolysaccharides (LPS) and H2O2. MIF content of the medium of 2.0 x 10(6) cells/20 ml after 20 h culture of nonstimulated fibroblasts was 0.