Lycopene Protects the Blood Vessels Against Vascular Complications in Type 2 Diabetics

By Kyle J. Norton

Vascular tissues are tissues with a lot of blood vessels, formed part of the circulatory system that carries blood to nourish the body tissues and organs including veins, arteries, and capillaries in the human body.

Vascular diseases are a group of diseases associated with an abnormal condition of the blood vessels (arteries and veins). In other words, vascular diseases are diseases that affect your circulatory system, such as peripheral artery disease.

 Diabetes is a medical and chronic condition caused by insufficient insulin entering the bloodstream to regulate the glucose. 

Most cases of diabetes are either caused by cells in pancreas dying off or receptor sites clogged up by fat and cholesterol. 

The vascular complications of diabetes can be either microvascular that induce

* Diabetic retinopathy, is a diabetic complication caused by damage to the blood vessels of the retina.

* Diabetic nephropathy is the diabetic complication that damages the kidneys.

* Diabetic neuropathy is the diabetic complication that damages nerves in the legs and feet.

Macrovascular diseases that include 

* Diabetic coronary artery disease is is the most common type of heart disease associated with the hardening and narrowing arteries that supply blood to the heart muscle.

* Diabetic peripheral disease is a type of heart disease caused by narrowed arteries that reduce blood flow to your limbs.

* Diabetic cerebral vascular disease is a condition that affects the blood vessels of the brain and cerebral circulation.

Most cases of diabetes are the results of longer-term hyperglycemia caused by an unhealthy healthy lifestyle such as uncontrolled diet and physical inactivity. Failure to maintain the right blood glucose over time not only induces vascular complications but also exacerbates the risk of mortality.

Lycopene is a phytochemical in the class of carotenoid, a natural pigment with no vitamin A activity found abundantly in tomatoes and other red fruits and vegetables, such as red carrots, watermelons, and papayas,

Tomatoes provide about 80% of the lycopene in the world diet. In plants, lycopene protects the host against excessive photodamage and perform various functions in photosynthesis.

With an aim to find a potential compound for the treatment of diabetes complications, researchers examined the effect of lycopene on vascular complications associated with endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs).

Based on the number and the function of EPCs related to the advanced glycation end products (AGEs) generated in DM patients, researchers found that
* Lycopene injection exerted its natural antioxidant activity that protects EPCs under the microenvironment of AGEs from damage.

* At the concentration of 10μg/mL, Lyc improves cell proliferation and has low cytotoxicity in the presence of AGEs.

* Lycopene also protects the vascular cells against the S phase of the cell cycle arrest, apoptosis rate by decreasing autophagic reaction between ROS and mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) in the promotion of EPC survival associated with the activation of autophagy inhibitors,
3-Methyladenine (3-MA).

The results strongly suggested that Lyc promotes EPCs survival and protect EPCs from apoptosis and oxidative autophagy induced by AGEs against the vascular complications in diabetes subjects.

Dr. Zeng YC, the lead scientist wrote in the final report, "This study provides new insights into Lyc protective mechanism of AGEs-induced oxidative autophagy in EPCs from DM patients and offers a new therapy for DM vascular complications".

Taken altogether, lycopene found in tomato may be considered supplements for the prevention of vascular complications in type 2 diabetics, pending on the confirmation of the larger sample size and multicenter human study.

Intake of lycopene in the form of supplement should be taken with extreme care to prevent overdose acute liver toxicity.

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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

Sources
(1) Lycopene Ameliorated Oxidative Stress and Inflammation in Type 2 Diabetic Rats by Zheng Z1, Yin Y1, Lu R1, Jiang Z. (PubMed)