SUBJECTS lycopene

HININGER I A, MEYER-WENGER A, MOSER U, WRIGHT A, SOUTHON S, THURNHAN D, CHOPRA M, VAN CEN BERG H, OLMEDILLA B, FAVIER A E and ROUSSEL A M (2001) No significant effects of lutein, lycopene or beta-carotene supplementation on biological markers of oxidative stress and LDL oxidisability in healthy adult subjects. J Am Coll Nutr. 20(3) 232-238. 

FIGURE 6.16 Bar graph of (3-carotene and lycopene skin levels measured with selective RRS for seven subjects. White bars represent (3-carotene levels, black bars the lycopene levels. Note strong intersubject variability of (3-carotene to lycopene concentration ratios, indicated above the bar graphs. 

It is noteworthy that some epidemiological studies have found that lycopene, but not lutein nor zeaxanthin, is substantially decreased in serum of AMD patients compared with age-matched control subjects (Cardinault et al., 2005). 

Gustin, DM, Rodvold KA, Sosman JA et al. 2004. Single-does pharmakinetic study of lycopene delivered in a well-defined food-based lycopene delivery system (tomato pasted-oil mixture) in healthy adult male subjects. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 13(5) 850-860. 

Unlu, NZ, T Bohn, DM Francis, HN Nagaraja, SK Clinton, and SJ Schwartz. 2007. Lycopene from heat-treated cA-isomer-rich tomato sauce is more bioavailable than from all-/ram-rich tomato sauce in human subjects. BrJ Nutr 98(1) 140-146. 

Reversed-phase liquid chromatography shape-recognition processes are distinctly limited to describe the enhanced separation of geometric isomers or structurally related compounds that result primarily from the differences between molecular shapes rather than from additional interactions within the stationary-phase and/or silica support. For example, residual silanol activity of the base silica on nonend-capped polymeric Cis phases was found to enhance the separation of the polar carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin [29]. In contrast, the separations of both the nonpolar carotenoid probes (a- and P-carotene and lycopene) and the SRM 869 column test mixture on endcapped and nonendcapped polymeric Cig phases exhibited no appreciable difference in retention. The nonpolar probes are subject to shape-selective interactions with the alkyl component of the stationary-phase (irrespective of endcapping), whereas the polar carotenoids containing hydroxyl moieties are subject to an additional level of retentive interactions via H-bonding with the surface silanols. Therefore, a direct comparison between the retention behavior of nonpolar and polar carotenoid solutes of similar shape and size that vary by the addition of polar substituents (e.g., dl-trans P-carotene vs. dll-trans P-cryptoxanthin) may not always be appropriate in the context of shape selectivity. 

Lycopene levels in plasma and human tissues reflect dietary intake. In a study, when subjects consumed a tomato-free diet for 2 weeks, their lycopene levels dropped significantly (Rao and Agarwal, 1998a). Ingested lycopene is... 

In another study (Moriel et al., 2002), 11 patients with mild essential hypertension were compared with 11 healthy subjects for water- and lipid-soluble antioxidants and the concentrations of nitric oxide derivatives in the plasma. A significant reduction in plasma lycopene was observed in the hypertensive patients compared to the normal subjects. Similar reductions in ascorbate, urate, and (3-carotene were also observed in this study. However, there were no differences in the nitrous oxide derivatives between the two groups. Hypertension and lymphatic circulation impairment are associated with liver cirrhosis. When patients with liver cirrhosis were compared to healthy matched controls, a significant reduction in serum lycopene, other carotenoid antioxidants, retinol, and oc-tocopherol were observed in the cirrhotic patients. Based on these observations, the authors recommend thorough screening for the antioxidants and improved diet in the... 

A concern has been raised that phytosterol doses that are effective for cholesterol reduction may impair the absorption and lower blood concentrations of fat-soluble vitamins and antioxidants. A number of studies showed that phytosterols had no effect on plasma concentrations of vitamin D, retinol, or plasma-lipid-standardized alpha-tocopherol. Moreover, the reports of the effect of phytosterols on concentrations of blood carotenoids (lutein, lycopene, and alpha-carotene) are controversial. There seems to be general agreement that phytosterol doses >1 g/d significantly decrease LDL-C standardized beta-carotene concentrations however, it remains to be determined whether a reported 15-20% reduction in beta-carotene due to phytosterol supplementation is associated with adverse health effects. Noakes et al. found that consumption of one or more carotenoid-rich vegetable or fruit servings a day was sufficient to prevent lowering of plasma carotenoid concentrations in 46 subjects with hypercholesterolemia treated with 2.3 g of either sterol or stanol esters. 

In a 1997 publication, we reported the relative distribution of 13 major dietary carotenoids in the serum of 10 healthy human subjects with a high intake of fruits and vegetables." The concentrations of the 12 dietary cii-carotenoids were combined and reported together with 13 of their corresponding all-trani-compounds. The average distribution of serum carotenoids for these subjects were lutein (20%), lycopene (20%), P-carotene (10%), -carotene (10%), P-cryptoxanthin (8%), phyto-fluene (8%), a-carotene (6%), a-cryptoxanthin (4%), phytoene (4%), zeaxanthin... 

The colored hydrocarbons are materials for an interesting experiment in thin-layer chromatography (Chapter 9), but commercial samples are extremely expensive and subject to deterioration on storage. The isolation procedure in this chapter affords amounts of pigments that are un-weighable, except on a microbalance, but more than adequate for the thin-layer chromatography experiment. It is suggested that half the students isolate lycopene and the other half j8-carotene. 

Lycopene has been reported to increase the survival rate of mice exposed to x-ray radiation (Forssberg et al., 1959). Ribaya-Mercado et al. (1995) reported on the protective effects of lycopene toward oxidative stress-mediated damage of the human skin upon irradiation with UV light. Peng et al. (1998) examined the levels of different carotenoids, including lycopene, and vitamins A and E in plasma and cervical tissues obtained from 87 women subjects (27 cancerous, 33 precancerous and 27 noncancerous). Women with cancer had lower plasma levels of lycopene, other carotenoids, vitamin A and E compared to pre- and noncancerous women. The... 

Literature is scarce on the effects of controlled atmosphere (CA) and modified atmosphere (MA) storage on carotenoid content and colonr retention in yellow and red vegetables. Sozzi et al. (1999), reported a lower content in total carotenoids and lycopene in tomatoes, which had been stored in 3% O2 or 20% CO2 than after storage in air (control). No differences were fonnd after storage in low O2 and high CO2. When the samples were transferred to air, the total carotenoid and lycopene contents were lower in the tomatoes, which were subjected to different storage treatments from those stored in air all the time. 

The biosynthesis of carotenoids in plants has been reviewed extensively in recent years and is only briefly described here (Britton, 1988 Bartley and Scolnik, 1994 Sandmann, 1994). The committed step to carotenoid synthesis is the formation of the first compound phytoene by the head-to-head condensation of two molecules of GGDP by phytoene synthase. Phytoene is subjected to a series of four sequential desaturation reactions, by two separate enzymes to yield lycopene, which has eleven conjugated double bonds. Lycopene is then cyclized to /3-carotene by two /3-cyclizations or to a-carotene... 

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