加州大学：咖喱香料，omega-3脂肪酸帮助脊髓损伤后的康复

UCLA: Curry spice, omega-3 fatty acid preserve walking ability following spinal-cord injury

　

　

2012年6月26日
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加州大学洛杉矶分校的研究人员发现，富含一种流行的欧米伽-3脂肪酸和一种咖喱香料成分的饮食有助于保护脊髓受损的老鼠的行走能力。

这项研究结果发表在6月26日的《神经外科杂志:脊柱》(Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine)上。研究表明，这些膳食补充剂有助于修复神经细胞，并在颈部退行性损伤后维持神经功能。

　

加州大学洛杉矶分校大卫·格芬医学院神经外科副教授、首席研究员兰斯顿·霍利博士说:“正常的衰老会使椎管变窄，对脊髓和损伤组织造成压力。”“虽然手术可以减轻压力，防止进一步的伤害，但它不能修复对细胞和神经纤维的损伤。我们想探讨膳食补充剂是否能帮助脊髓自我修复。

加州大学洛杉矶分校的研究小组研究了两组患有模拟颈椎脊髓病的老鼠——一种进行性疾病，常发生在患有风湿性关节炎和骨质疏松症等脊柱衰弱的人群中。颈椎脊髓病可导致神经功能障碍症状，如行走困难、颈部和手臂疼痛、手麻木和四肢无力。这是导致55岁以上的人出现与脊柱有关的行走问题的最常见原因。

　

第一组动物被喂食老鼠饲料，老鼠饲料复制了西方高饱和脂肪和高糖的饮食习惯。第二组摄入标准饮食，补充二十二碳六烯酸(DHA)和姜黄素，姜黄素是印度咖喱香料姜黄中的一种化合物。第三组老鼠接受了标准的大鼠饮食，作为对照组。

为什么这些补充剂? DHA是一种omega-3脂肪酸，可以修复细胞膜的损伤。姜黄素是一种强抗氧化剂，之前的研究已经将其与组织修复联系起来。减少炎症。

“大脑和脊髓共同工作，多年的研究表明，DHA和姜黄素等补充剂可以对大脑产生积极的影响，”加州大学洛杉矶分校神经外科教授费尔南多戈麦斯-皮尼拉(Fernando Gomez-Pinilla)说。“我们怀疑在大脑中起作用的东西也可能在脊髓中起作用。当我们无法找到好的数据来支持我们的假设时，我们决定自己研究它。

研究人员记录了老鼠走路的基线水平，并每周重新检查老鼠的步态。早在三周的时候，吃西方饮食的老鼠就表现出明显的行走问题，随着研究的进展而恶化。研究开始六周后，喂食富含DHA和姜黄素的食物的老鼠走路明显比第一组老鼠好。

接下来，科学家们检查了老鼠的脊髓，以评估饮食如何在分子水平上影响它们的损伤。他们测量了与细胞膜损伤、神经修复和细胞通讯相关的三种标记物的水平。

吃西方食物的老鼠显示出与细胞膜损伤相关的标志物水平更高。相反，DHA和姜黄素在第二组中似乎抵消了损伤的影响，第二组的标记水平与对照组相当。

在接受西方饮食喂养的大鼠中，与神经修复和细胞通讯相关的标记物水平明显较低。同样，喂食补充饲料的动物的水平与对照组相似。

戈麦斯-皮尼拉说:“DHA和姜黄素似乎能激活一些分子机制，从而维持大鼠的神经功能。”“这是理解饮食在保护身体免受退行性疾病影响方面所起作用的令人兴奋的第一步。”

霍莉说:“我们的研究结果表明，饮食可以帮助减少疾病相关的变化，修复脊髓损伤。”“接下来，我们想看看其他与导致慢性脊髓损伤的一连串事件有关的机制。”我们的目标是确定哪些阶段对医疗干预最有效，并确定减缓疾病进程的有效步骤。

　

UCLA: Curry spice, omega-3 fatty acid preserve walking ability following spinal-cord injury

　

　

Elaine Schmidt | June 26, 2012

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UCLA researchers have discovered that a diet enriched with a popular omega-3 fatty acid and an ingredient in curry spice helps to preserve walking ability in rats that have experienced damage to their spinal cords.

 

The findings, published June 26 in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine, suggest that these dietary supplements help repair nerve cells and maintain neurological function after degenerative damage to the neck.

 

"Normal aging often narrows the spinal canal, putting pressure on the spinal cord and injuring tissue," said principal investigator Dr. Langston Holly, associate professor of neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. "While surgery can relieve the pressure and prevent further injury, it can't repair damage to the cells and nerve fibers. We wanted to explore whether dietary supplementation could help the spinal cord heal itself."

　

　

 

The UCLA team studied two groups of rats with a condition that simulated cervical myelopathy — a progressive disorder that often occurs in people with spine-weakening conditions like rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis. Cervical myelopathy can lead to disabling neurological symptoms, such as difficulty walking, neck and arm pain, hand numbness, and weakness of the limbs. It's the most common cause of spine-related walking problems in people over 55.

 

The first group of animals was fed rat chow that replicated a Western diet high in saturated fats and sugar. The second group consumed a standard diet supplemented with docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and curcumin, a compound in the Indian curry spice turmeric. A third set of rats received a standard rat diet and served as a control group.

 

Why these supplements? DHA is an omega-3 fatty acid shown to repair damage to cell membranes. Curcumin is a strong antioxidant that previous studies have linked to tissue repair. Both reduce inflammation.

 

"The brain and spinal cord work together, and years of research demonstrate that supplements like DHA and curcumin can positively influence the brain," said study co-author Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, a professor of neurosurgery at UCLA. "We suspected that what works in the brain may also work in the spinal cord. When we were unable to find good data to support our hypothesis, we decided to study it ourselves."

 

The researchers recorded a baseline of the rats walking and re-examined the animals' gait on a weekly basis. As early as three weeks, the rats eating the Western diet demonstrated measurable walking problems that worsened as the study progressed. Rats fed a diet enriched with DHA and curcumin walked significantly better than the first group even six weeks after the study's start.

 

Next, the scientists examined the rats' spinal cords to evaluate how diet affected their injury on a molecular level. They measured levels of three markers respectively linked to cell-membrane damage, neural repair and cellular communication.

 

The rats that ate the Western diet showed higher levels of the marker linked to cell-membrane damage. In contrast, the DHA and curcumin appeared to offset the injury's effect in the second group, which displayed marker levels that were equivalent to the control group.

 

Levels of the markers linked to neural repair and cellular communication were significantly lower in the rats raised on the Western diet. Again, levels in the animals fed the supplemented diet appeared similar to those of the control group.

 

"DHA and curcumin appear to invoke several molecular mechanisms that preserved neurological function in the rats," said Gomez-Pinilla. "This is an exciting first step toward understanding the role that diet plays in protecting the body from degenerative disease."

 

"Our findings suggest that diet can help minimize disease-related changes and repair damage to the spinal cord," Holly said. "We next want to look at other mechanisms involved in the cascade of events leading up to chronic spinal-cord injury. Our goal is to identify which stages will respond best to medical intervention and identify effective steps for slowing the disease process."

 

Other co-authors included Dr. Donald Blaskiewicz, Aiguo Wu, Cameron Feng and Zhe Ying, all of UCLA. Their research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (RO1 NS056413) and the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation.

 

Curry spice, omega-3 fatty acid preserve walking ability following spinal-cord injury | UCLA  http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/ucla-study-shows-omega-3-fatty-235713