"As we age, the ability of the immune system to fight disease and infections and protect against cancer wears down as a result of the impact of oxygen radicals on the immune system," Nel said.
According to the UCLA study, the ability of aged tissues to reinvigorate their antioxidant defense can play an important role in reversing much of the negative impact of free radicals on the immune system. However, until this current study, the extent to which antioxidant defense can impact the aging process in the immune system was not properly understood.
"Our defense against oxidative stress damage may determine at what rate we age, how it will manifest and how to interfere in those processes," Nel said. "In particular, our study shows that a chemical present in broccoli is capable of stimulating a wide range of antioxidant defense pathways and may be able to interfere with the age-related decline in immune function."
The UCLA team not only found that the direct administration of sulforaphane in broccoli reversed the decline in cellular immune function in old mice, but they witnessed similar results when they took individual immune cells from old mice, treated those cells with the chemical outside the body and then placed the treated cells back into a recipient animal.
In particular, the scientists discovered that dendritic cells, which introduce infectious agents and foreign substances to the immune system, were particularly effective in restoring immune function in aged animals when treated with sulforaphane.
"We found that treating older mice with sulforaphane increased the immune response to the level of younger mice," said Hyon-Jeen Kim, first author and research scientist at the Geffen School.
To investigate how the chemical in broccoli increased the immune system's response, the UCLA group confirmed that sulforaphane interacts with a protein called Nrf2, which serves as a master regulator of the body's overall antioxidant response and is capable of switching on hundreds of antioxidant and rejuvenating genes and enzymes.
Nel said that the chemistry leading to activation of this gene-regulation pathway could be a platform for drug discovery and vaccine development to boost the decline of immune function in elderly people.
"This is a radical new way of thinking in how to increase the immune function of elderly people to possibly protect against viral infections and cancer," Nel said. "We may have uncovered a new mechanism by which to boost vaccine responses by using a nutrient chemical to impact oxidant stress pathways in the immune system."
Kim said that although there is a decline in Nrf2 activity with aging, this pathway remains accessible to chemicals like sulforaphane that are capable of restoring some of the ravages of aging by boosting antioxidant pathways.
The next step is further study to see how these findings would translate to humans.
"Dietary antioxidants have been shown to have important effects on immune function, and with further study, we may be adding broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables to that list," Nel said.
For now, Nel suggests including these vegetables as part of a healthy diet.
Nel said that these findings offer a window into how the immune system ages.
"We may find that combating free radicals is only part of the answer. It may prove to be a more multifaceted process and interplay between pro- and antioxidant forces," he said.
The study was funded by the National Institute on Aging, the UCLA Claude D. Pepper Older Adults Independence Center, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
I love broccoli. good with sprinkled cheddar cheese, or just butter and salt.
but, I like taking cauliflower and broccoli, steaming it, and blending it so you get mashed "cruciferous", which is like mashed potatoes. only a bit green with the broccoli. add some butter and cream (or milk) to it and salt and pepper, (and a little cheddar - but that is optional), and you have something very nice with a meat dish. and.. very easy to digest.
You can take leftover and add it to soup to make it a little creamier. just blend it real well before adding it, and add it toward the last of your cooking of the soup.
she did the mash, the cruciferous mash, it was a stove top smash ...
Quote:
Originally Posted by scorpiotiger
You can take leftover and add it to soup to make it a little creamier. just blend it real well before adding it, and add it toward the last of your cooking of the soup.
I just did that last night - sort of. I had some left over beef-broth (very rich - from a local deli) and I blended it with some frozen, organic broccoli florets. I of course used my handy-dandy immersion blender. Total prep and cook time ... less than five minutes.
Yummy and healthy.
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yep, those immersion blenders are GREAT!!! I have a braun multiquick.
you can make all kinds of "vegetable" cream soups. even if you don't make your own broth, just buy a brand of soup you like, and add some creamed (blended till smooth) vegetables. It makes the soup 'creamier' .
Broccoli - The Anti-Aging, Immune-Booster
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