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Four-week ingestion of blood orange juice results in measurable anthocyanin urinary levels but does not affect cellular markers related to cardiovascular risk: a randomized cross-over study in healthy volunteers

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Abstract

Purpose

Blood orange juice (OJ) is an important source of anthocyanins (ACN). The latter molecules are endowed with antioxidant activity and might thus modulate different cell function. Our aim was to investigate ACN absorption following a 1-month daily supplementation of blood OJ and their potential effects on cell markers of platelet and leukocyte activation and interaction.

Methods

Eighteen healthy subjects (10 men and 8 women) were supplemented for 4 weeks with 1 L/day of either blood OJ or blond OJ (that contains no ACN), following a cross-over design. Blood samples were obtained from fasting participants both at baseline and after each week of treatment to measure plasma ACN concentration. At the same time-intervals, 24-h urinary excretion of these molecules was also measured. At the beginning and the end of each 4-week intervention period, platelet and leukocyte markers and mixed cell conjugates were assessed both in basal condition and upon in vitro collagen/ADP activation.

Results

After 1 week supplementation with blood OJ, 24-h urinary excretion of ACN reached average levels of 11.47 ± 5.63 nmol that significantly differed from baseline and remained substantially unchanged until the end of treatment. No plasma accumulation of ACN following blood OJ supplementation was observed. Cellular markers were not significantly affected by either OJ after 4-week supplementation.

Conclusions

Following supplementation of healthy volunteers with 1 L/day of blood OJ for 4 weeks, the ACN plasma levels reached were insufficient to significantly modify cell markers of platelet and leukocyte activation and interaction.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the 6th EU Framework Program (FLORA Contract no. FOOD-CT-01730). The authors wish to thank Dr. Augusto Di Castelnuovo of Research Laboratories of Catholic University of Campobasso for his valid statistic support.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Laboratories, Catholic University, Fondazione di Ricerca e Cura “Giovanni Paolo II”, L. go A. Gemelli 1, 86100, Campobasso, Italy

    Lucia Giordano, Walter Coletta, Chiara Tamburrelli, Marco D’Imperio, Marilena Crescente, Cristian Silvestri, Amalia De Curtis, Licia Iacoviello, Giovanni de Gaetano, Domenico Rotilio, Chiara Cerletti & Maria Benedetta Donati

  2. Istituto Sperimentale per l’Agrumicoltura, Corso Savoia, Acireale, CT, Italy

    Paolo Rapisarda & Giuseppe Reforgiato Recupero

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  1. Lucia Giordano
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  2. Walter Coletta
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  3. Chiara Tamburrelli
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  9. Amalia De Curtis
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  12. Domenico Rotilio
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  14. Maria Benedetta Donati
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lucia Giordano.

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Giordano, L., Coletta, W., Tamburrelli, C. et al. Four-week ingestion of blood orange juice results in measurable anthocyanin urinary levels but does not affect cellular markers related to cardiovascular risk: a randomized cross-over study in healthy volunteers. Eur J Nutr 51, 541–548 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-011-0237-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-011-0237-9

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