Lycopene Inhibits Pulmonary Emphysema in Vivo

By Kyle J. Norton

The lung formed part of the circulatory system plays an essential and unique role in taking oxygen to the blood and exhaling carbon dioxide from the blood.

In other words, any diseases involved in breathing problems that reduce the function of the lung are pulmonary diseases.

Lung diseases are a group of medical conditions that cause the reduced function of the lung inhaling oxygen to the blood and exhaling carbon dioxide from the blood.

Pulmonary diseases are a class of diseases associated with the lungs, including asthma, COPD, influenza, pneumonia and tuberculosis, and lung cancer.

In other words, any diseases involved in breathing problems that reduce the function of the lung are pulmonary diseases.

Most common pulmonary diseases are asthma, a chronic inflammatory disease affecting the airway of the lung with recurring symptoms, such as wheezing, chest tightness, shortness of breath, and coughing. The disease affects people of all ages, and mostly starts during childhood; pneumothorax, a condition of collection of air within the pleural cavity, from either the outside or from the lung, and bronchitis is a condition of an inflammation of the mucous membranes of the bronchi, the larger and medium-sized airways that carry airflow from the trachea into the lung parenchyma.

 Emphysema is a type of COPD with a long term and progressive condition that cause shortness of breath, depending to the stage of lung function associated with the damage of tissues of the air sacs (alveoli) in the lungs.

Most common causes of pulmonary emphysema, smoking, exposure to air pollution, such as chemical fumes, dust, and other substances and irritating fumes and dust at work.

Dr. Stephen I. Rennard, the lead scientist wrote, "Emphysema is characterized by enlargement of alveolar spaces together with destruction of alveolar walls in the absence of obvious fibrosis (1). Far and away, the most common cause of pulmonary emphysema is cigarette smoking".

And, "Cigarette smoke causes an inflammatory response in the lower respiratory tract characterized by the accumulation of pigment-laden alveolar macrophages together with the recruitment of smaller numbers of neutrophils (1, 2)".

Lycopene is a phytochemical found in tomato 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.

On finding a potential compound for the treatment of colitis researchers examined the effects of lycopene on antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties on emphysema.

Mice selected to the study were treated by two different doses of lycopene (25 or 50 mg/kg/day, diluted in sunflower oil by orogastric gavage before exposing to 60 days of CS or not (CG).

According to the tested analysis, lycopene not only promoted a reduction in the number of total leukocytes counts and improved patients with pulmonary emphysema.

Furthermore, lycopene promotes the balanced ratio of free radical and antioxidant enzymes by decreasing lipid peroxidation and DNA damage and increasing the activities of SOD, CAT and GSH content.

Levels of TNF-α, IFN-γ, and IL-10. which were elevated by the injection of CS were also decreased by the application of lycopene.

Additionally, the decrease of myeloperoxidase activity and nitrite content. associated with overexpression of free radicals induced inflammation was also inhibited by the lycopene.

Based on the findings, researchers said, " our data elucidated the role of lycopene as an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agent in mice exposed to CS".

Taken altogether, lycopene found in tomato may be considered a remedy for the prevention and treatment of pulmonary emphysema, 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 mitigates pulmonary emphysema induced by cigarette smoke in a murine model by Campos KKD1, de Oliveira Ramos C1, Martins TL1, Costa GP2, Talvani A2, Garcia CCM3, Oliveira LAM4, Cangussú SD1, Costa DC5, Bezerra FS. (PubMed)
(2) Cigarette Smoke Inhibits Alveolar Repair. A Mechanism for the Development of Emphysema by Stephen I. Rennard , Shinsaku Togo , and Olaf Holz. (ATS Journals)