Potential Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Properties of Serum from Healthy Adolescents with Optimal Mediterranean Diet Adherence: Findings from DIMENU Cross-Sectional Study.

Catia Morelli,Daniela De Rose,Diego Sisci,Sebastiano Andò,Ennio Avolio,Angelo Galluccio,Ines Barone,Stefania Catalano,Daniela Bonofiglio,Daniele La Russa,Cinzia Giordano,Giovanna Caparello,Giuseppina Augimeri

doi:10.3390/antiox10081172

Abstract

During adolescence, health status is influenced by several factors, among which dietary pattern is a crucial element of lifestyle in terms of prevention and treatment of metabolic and chronic diseases. The most studied healthy dietary pattern is the Mediterranean Diet (MD), due to a combination of foods that are rich in antioxidant and anti-inflammatory nutrients. The aim of this study, carried out in healthy adolescents from the DIMENU study, is to assess the adherence to the MD, as well as the dietary nutrient intake and to evaluate the potential antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of sera from participants grouped according to the MD score. Using the KIDMED score, as the MD quality index for children and teenagers, we found that the adolescents in this study had an average adherence to the MD (6.71 ± 2.58). Adolescents were clustered into three groups based on their MD adherence. Assessment of quality by 24 h recall revealed higher intakes in polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA)/saturated fatty acid (SFA) ratio, dietary fibers, vitamins, and total oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) in the optimal than in poor MD adherence group. We observed that dietary PUFA/SFA ratio was negatively correlated with serum C-Reactive Protein levels, and total dietary fibers were inversely correlated with Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate values, while total ORAC was directly correlated with serum glucose concentrations. Interestingly, the reactive oxygen metabolite (ROM) concentrations, determined by the ROM assay, were significantly lower in pooled sera from optimal than poor adherers. Finally, using lipopolysaccharide-stimulated human macrophages, as an in vitro model of acute inflammation, we found a reduced secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines upon serum treatment from adolescents with optimal respect to medium and poor MD adherence. Our results highlight the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties of serum from adolescents with healthy nutrition in terms of adherence to the MD, which may have a positive impact on the prevention of chronic diseases in adulthood.

Highlights

The Mediterranean Diet (MD) is considered one of the healthiest dietary patterns, due to a combination of foods, rich in antioxidants and anti-inflammatory nutrients, which have been proven to exert a positive role against several metabolic and chronic degenerative diseases [1,2,3,4]
Normal mean values of BMI were found in the total adolescent sample (22.87 ± 3.39), showing a proportion of participants with overweight and obesity of 24.67% and 3.89%, respectively, with overweight and obesity percentages being greater in boys than in girls (15.58% vs. 9.09%, and 2.59% vs. 1.3%, respectively)
We reported data on waist/hip ratio along with body cell mass (BCM), fat mass (FM), fat-free mass (FFM), phase angle (PhA), and total body water (TBW), which reflect an indirect measure for body composition

Summary

Introduction

The Mediterranean Diet (MD) is considered one of the healthiest dietary patterns, due to a combination of foods, rich in antioxidants and anti-inflammatory nutrients, which have been proven to exert a positive role against several metabolic and chronic degenerative diseases [1,2,3,4]. The MD pattern consists of the high consumption of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, olive oil, and low fat dairy products, in moderate consumption of fish, and in limited intake of meat [5,6]. The basic principles of MD refer to the quality of diet defined by a food-based pattern, which appears to have a greater effect on health outcomes compared with a nutrient-based approach. The quality of the MD pattern is characterized by regular consumption of nutrients, such as monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), high consumption of polyphenols, fibers, and low glycemic carbohydrates, and greater intake of plant proteins than animal proteins [7,8]. In particular almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, and peanuts, are a very good source of PUFAs and plant sterols, which are anti-inflammatory compounds [4,9]

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Results

Conclusion