New study has suggested that polyphenolic antioxidants present in the juice of pomegranate may help in reducing stress and atherogenesis.
Atherogenesis is the process of plaques etc forming in the inner lining of the arteries that make them hard causing a state of atherosclerosis. This causes disturbed blood flow and may cause serious damage to heart. Perceived stress increases the risk of atherogenesis.The new study shows that cultured human coronary artery endothelial cells exposed to high stress reacted positively to concentrated pomegranate juice. The juice reduced the activation of redox-sensitive genes in atherosclerosis prone mice. When these mice were orally fed with pomegranate juice, the hypercholesterolemic mice at different stages of the disease showed significant reduction in progress of atherosclerosis.
The study shows that pro-atherogenic effects caused by shear stress can be controlled by chronic use of pomegranate juice. This will in future help a lot of people undergoing treatment of atherosclerosis or something similar.
The study was published in the march 2005 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, March 2005
