What is Health-Promoting Properties of Proanthocyanidins for Intestinal Dysfunction?

What is an Amazing PAC Supplement? Where Is It From?

95% Proanthocyanidin Powder is often isolated from grape seeds or pine bark. Proanthocyanidins are chemical compounds. They give the fruits or flowers of many plants a red, blue, or purple color. First, study their importance as phytochromes. These compounds may help to prevent cancer. Proanthocyanidins belong to a group of compounds called polyphenols. These compounds belong to a subclass called flavonoids.

Abundant food sources of proanthocyanidins include red grapes, black grapes, grape seeds, red wine, bilberries, cranberries, strawberries, blueberries, red cabbage, pine bark, and lingonberry leaves, birch, and ginkgo.

What is Intestinal Barrier?

The main function of the intestinal tract is to digest food compositions and absorb nutrients and water from the lumen into the systemic circulation. The gut is also a physical barrier to contact with the environment. As a consequence, the intestinal epithelium has continuous exposure to possibly pathogenic microorganisms, toxins, and detrimental components of the diet. When barrier function and mucosal immune homeostasis are disturbed, the influx of intestinal contents can trigger an excessive mucosal immune response. Eventually, chronic exposure to these harmful environmental stimuli may cause the development of both local and systemic inflammatory conditions.

What is the Role of Proanthocyanidins (PACs) in Promoting Intestinal Health?

Evidence from experimental animal and cell culture studies indicates that exposure of intestinal mucosa to proanthocyanidin-rich plant products like grape seeds may help maintain barrier function and improve pathological inflammation present in diet-induced obesity and inflammatory intestinal disease.

The health-promoting properties of PACs in the gut are attributable not only to the inherent antioxidant activity of phenolic compounds, but also to the ability of these phytochemicals to interact with a variety of biomolecules, including proteins, biofilm lipids, and endotoxins. The biological activity of PACs highly relies on structure, and enriched herbal extracts composed of diverse molecular structures play a wide range of unrelated physiological roles. In this way, PAC supplements can regulate kinase activity, several signal transduction pathways involved in inflammatory responses, and TJ remodeling. Flavan-3-ol monomers and short PAC oligomers are taken up by enterocytes and immune cells and act directly on kinases and transcription factors. The biological activity of larger oligomeric and polymeric PACs does not require direct intestinal absorption and is capable of binding to protein receptors on the surface of enterocytes and immune cells as well as luminal bacterial endotoxins, thereby inhibiting pro-inflammatory signaling and improving barrier integrity. With negligible absorption of large PAC molecules in the small intestine, phenyl-γ-valerolactones and phenolic acids metabolized by the colonic microbiota are thought to play a paramount role in these health-promoting effects.

What are PAC Effects and Mechanisms of Actions with Respect to Inflammatory Process?

Under OxS conditions, pro-inflammatory cytokines are triggered in intestinal epithelial cells. Several experiments confirmed this observation by demonstrating Fe/Asc-mediated induction of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNFα). Consistent with these data, the prooxidant Fe/Asc increased protein expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX2), an enzyme with multifaceted roles in the promotion and maintenance of inflammation. However, PAC administration counteracted Fe/Asc-induced TNFα and COX2 protein levels. Although Fe/Asc-challenged Caco-2/15 cells may exhibit high NF-κB signaling through activation of the NF-κB/IκB ratio and phosphorylation of its inhibitor κappa B (IκB), PACs are able to interfere with the NF-κB pathway, as reflected by their inhibition of NF-κB and a reduction in IκB phosphorylation/IκB ratio, which was enhanced by Fe/Asc. Therefore, PAC acts as a potent inhibitor of inflammation.

If you are suffering from intestinal dysfunction, try our 95% Proanthocyanidin Powder and you will be amazed at the results. Looking forward to your contact at april@inhealthnature.com.