Chinese team study finds lactoferrin relieves stroke

Recently, the Beijing Institute of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, dairy product quality and risk assessment innovation team found that lactoferrin can significantly alleviate stroke caused by hypoxia and hypoxia, and at the same time revealed the molecular mechanism of lactoferrin function, which is further enriched A study on the active function of lactoferrin. Related research results were published online in the Journal of Dairy Science.

According to associate researcher Zheng Nan, ischemic stroke is a group of diseases whose main clinical manifestations are cerebral ischemic injury symptoms. The disease has an acute onset and a high case fatality rate. It is one of the most important fatal diseases in the world. Ischemic stroke is mainly based on prevention, and functional food is an important preventive medium. Milk contains a variety of active ingredients that are beneficial to the human body, of which lactoferrin is an important non-heme iron-binding glycoprotein that can participate in immune regulation, inflammation, and oxidative damage, but whether lactoferrin can relieve ischemia-induced Stroke is still unclear.

The team constructed a cell model and a mouse model of ischemic brain stroke. The study found that in the cell model and the mouse model, the expression levels of inflammatory factors TLR-4, MyD88, NF-κB, TNF-α, and IL-1β protein were significant Increased, and lactoferrin can significantly inhibit the expression of these inflammatory factors. Using metabolomics, the study found 41 metabolites related to ischemic stroke, of which glutathione had the highest correlation, mainly manifested by a decrease in content, while lactoferrin increased glutathione content in cells. Through further verification experiments, it was found that glutathione can inhibit the TLR-4 pathway of cells and the expression of inflammatory factors, which indicates that lactoferrin may control the expression of inflammatory factors by regulating glutathione content. At the same time, the study found that after lactoferrin boiled, the polymerization form changed significantly, and the protective effect on ischemic stroke was lost, which shows that the thermal processing conditions must be controlled in food processing to ensure that lactoferrin exerts its biological activity. .

The research was funded by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Project, the public welfare industry (agricultural) research project and the modern agricultural industry technology system.