(Press-News.org) A small clinical trial led by researchers at UC San Diego School of Medicine and VA San Diego Healthcare System (VASDHS) found that patients with advanced heart failure and type 2 diabetes showed improved mitochondrial structure after three months of treatment with epicatechin-enriched cocoa. Epicatechin is a flavonoid found in dark chocolate.
The results of this initial study has led to the implementation of larger, placebo-controlled clinical trial at UC San Diego School of Medicine and VASDHS to assess if patients with heart failure and diabetes show improvement in their exercise capacity when treated with epicatechin-rich cocoa.
The study published this week by the journal Clinical and Translational Science looked at five profoundly ill patients with major damage to skeletal muscle mitochondria. Mitochondria are structures responsible for most of the energy produced in cells. These "fuel cells" are dysfunctional as a result of both type 2 diabetes and heart failure, leading to abnormalities in skeletal muscle. In patients with heart failure and diabetes abnormalities in both the heart and skeletal muscle result in impaired functional capacity. These patients often complain of shortness of breath, lack of energy and have difficulty walking even short distances.
The trial participants consumed dark chocolate bars and a beverage with a total epicatechin content of approximately 100 mg per day for three months. Biopsies of skeletal muscle were conducted before and after treatment. After the three-month treatment, the researchers looked at changes in mitochondria volume and the abundance of cristae, which are internal compartments of mitochondria that are necessary for efficient function of the mitochondria, and measurable by electron microscopy.
"The cristae had been severely damaged and decreased in quantity in these patients," said one of the senior investigators, Francisco J. Villarreal, MD, PhD of UC San Diego's Department of Medicine's Division of Cardiology. "After three months, we saw recovery – cristae numbers back toward normal levels, and increases in several molecular indicators involved in new mitochondria production."
The results, which mimicked earlier studies showing improvement in skeletal and heart muscle function in animal models after treatment with epicatechin, were promising enough to prompt the larger study.
The principal investigator of this trial was Pam R. Taub, MD, assistant professor of medicine at UC San Diego and the VA San Diego Healthcare System. Taub will be leading the new clinical trial at UC San Diego that will enroll normal sedentary subjects as well as patients with heart failure/diabetes who will be treated with placebo, or epicatechin-rich chocolate.
###
Patients who would like more information about the clinical trial can call 858-552-8585, extension 3866.
Additional contributors to the published study include Israel Ramirez-Sanchez, PhD, Theodore P. Ciaraldi, PhD, Alan S. Maisel, MD, and Robert R. Henry, MD, UC San Diego School of Medicine and VA San Diego Health System; Guy Perkins, PhD, Anne N. Murphy, PhD, Robert Naviaux, MD, PhD and Michael Hogan, PhD, UC San Diego School of Medicine; and Guillermo Ceballos, MD, PhD, Escuela Superior de Medicina del Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Mexico City.
The study was supported in part by grants from the National Institutes of Health, American College of Cardiology and The Hershey Company.
END
Emotion-sensing computer software that models and responds to students' cognitive and emotional states – including frustration and boredom – has been developed by University of Notre Dame Assistant Professor of Psychology Sidney D'Mello and colleagues from the University of Memphis and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. D'Mello also is a concurrent assistant professor of computer science and engineering.
The new technology, which matches the interaction of human tutors, not only offers tremendous learning possibilities for students, but also redefines human-computer ...
Shark fins are worth more than other parts of the shark and are often removed from the body, which gets thrown back into the sea. To curtail this wasteful practice, many countries allow the fins to be landed detached from shark bodies, as long as their weight does not exceed five per cent of the total shark catch. New University of British Columbia research shows that this kind of legislation is too liberal.
A study published this week in the journal Fish Biology analyzes the fin to body weight ratios for 50 different shark species. The authors find the average fin ...
DestinationPro.com is a solution allowing independent execution of events and incentive programs. If anyone needed to organize a corporate meeting, business trip, training, bonus (incentive) trip for employees, conference, etc., he/she usually took advantage of services provided by one of the specialized agencies (DMCs - Destination Management Company). Based on the client's specification, such agency proposed agenda and individual suppliers (accommodation, restaurants, venues, transportation, logistic, etc.), subsequently ensuring and executing the whole event.
We ...
Philadelphia, PA, March 2, 2012 – Impaired social function is a cardinal symptom of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). One of the brain circuits that enable us to relate to other people is the "mirror neuron" system. This brain circuit is activated when we watch other people, and allows our brains to represent the actions of others, influencing our ability to learn new tasks and to understand the intentions and experiences of other people.
This mirror neuron system is impaired in individuals with ASD and better understanding the neurobiology of this system could help ...
WASHINGTON, D.C., March 2, 2012 – Newly proposed asthma outcome measures will help standardize and improve results from the hundreds of millions of dollars the National Institutes of Health (NIH) spends annually to study asthma, according to the Merck Childhood Asthma Network, Inc. (MCAN), the nation's only organization focused solely on childhood asthma. Even though years of research have led to groundbreaking improvements in better understanding and managing asthma, MCAN noted that the inability to compare results across many studies has hindered the nation's efforts ...
MAYWOOD, Ill. -- A scientific method paper and video by Loyola researchers has gone viral. The video demonstrates a laboratory technique used to study some aspects of mitochondrial dysfunctions in Alzheimer's disease and many other disorders.
It has been accessed by more than 14,000 scientists around the world since it was published in the Journal of Visualized Experiments, a peer-reviewed, PubMed-indexed journal that publishes biological and other scientific research in a video format.
Senior author is Joanna C. Bakowska, DVM, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department ...
A consortium of federal agencies and nongovernmental organizations has published a report proposing a set of common measures and data-collection methods for use in asthma clinical research. Asthma Outcomes in Clinical Research: Report of the Asthma Outcomes Workshop, which appears as a supplement to the March 2012 issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, resulted from a meeting organized by the National Institutes of Health, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Merck Childhood Asthma Network, Inc., with additional support for the publication ...
As more organizations look for ways to manage the cost of employee healthcare, what better way to bring this message to your organization than to have your CEO enter a fitness challenge. Nancy Munro, CEO of KnowledgeShift was willing to take on this challenge offered to members of the Illinois Technology Association starting in November of 2011. The contest was sponsored by InerTrain, an online fitness company.
Contestants had to evaluate their fit age before and after the contest. Each contestant worked with one of InerTrain's online virtual trainers with personalized ...
Scientists from PRBO Conservation Science and the Department of Fish and Game have completed an innovative study on the effects of climate change on bird species of greatest concern. This first-of-its-kind study prioritizes which species are most at risk and will help guide conservation measures in California. The study was published this week in the journal PLoS ONE.
"What's most exciting about the study is that our unique approach is one that other scientists and resource managers can duplicate to help them conserve wildlife in the face of climate change," said PRBO ...
A University of Alberta research team has discovered that technology commonly used to decontaminate food industry equipment can also rid meat processing plants of lethal microbial material responsible for the human version of the ailment Mad Cow disease.
U of A microbiology professors Mike Belosevic and Norm Neumann and engineering professor Mohamed Gamal El-Din demonstrated that infectious proteins found in the brain matter of cattle can be eradicated from water treated with ozone.
The discovery could have applications in decontaminating wastewater in settings such ...
