We hypothesized that dietary supplementation with polyphenols would have neuroprotective actions in rodent brain that would be manifested as either enhancement of expression or modifications of proteins important for neuronal viability, and/or reduction of expression or modifications of, proteins linked with neuropathology. Normal female adult rats were maintained on 5% grape seed extract-supplemented diets for six weeks, after which they were sacrificed, and homogenates of their whole brains analyzed by proteomics technology (2-dimensional electrphoresis followed by mass spectrometry) to assess protein differences between the two sets of brain homogenates. Software-assisted image analysis of the 2D gel images identified several gel "spots" that quantitatively differed in intensity or in horizontal position between the two sets of gels representing the dietary groups. Matrix-assisted laser-desorption ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) followed by quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry (Qtof MS) identified the proteins contained in the gel spots of interest.
With the exception of one novel protein, and a cytoskeletal protein,
all the proteins identified in this study were previously implicated in
either Alzheimer's disease, or mouse models of neurodegeneration.
Moreover, the direction of the differences determined in this study
were in the opposite direction to those detected for these proteins in
the disease tissues. These results strongly suggest that ingestion of
components in grape seed extract was neuroprotective.
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