Date 2017/02/23
BIOBANK CO., LTD. (located in Okayama
City, Okayama Prefecture) has performed a collaborative research with associate
professor Koji Wakame and his study group from the Department of Pharmacology at Hokkaido
Pharmaceutical University School of Pharmacy (located in Sapporo City, Hokkaido).
The fermented vegetable extract (OM-X) showed a potential to regulate the immune
system and protect cells.
The results
have been presented at the 23rd Meeting of the Japan Mibyou System Association
in November 2016 and published in the Integrative Molecular Medicine in January
20, 2017.
【Abstract】
BIOBANK CO., LTD. develops and
produces an extract (OM-X) that was made with fermented vegetables, fruits,
seaweeds, mushrooms and other ingredients. Unfortunately, it is difficult to show
the specific scientific basis about the function of health foods, which are a mixture
of various kinds of raw materials like OM-X, to living organisms.
Based on this background, BIOBANK
CO., LTD. has conducted a collaborative research with associate professor Koji
Wakame from Hokkaido Pharmaceutical University
School of Pharmacy in order to find the functionality and mechanisms of OM-X.
The in vitro study showed that the
macrophages from mice were activated by OM-X. The in vivo study also showed
that the administration of OM-X causes the change in the gene expression in the
liver of the mice which will inhibit inflammation and protect cells.
【Procedures】
We added OM-X to a culture of lower
gastrointestinal tract cells from rats and measured the production of GLP-1,
one of the hormones which promotes the secretion of insulin, by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). According
to the results, the production of GLP-1 in the gastrointestinal tract cells increased
proportionally with the added amount of OM-X (Chart1).
We added OM-X to a culture of macrophages from
mice (RAW264.7 cells) and measured the production of nitric oxide (NO) which is
an indicator of the activity of macrophages and cytokines (IL-6、TNF-α)
which activates the immune system. Regarding the production of NO and cytokines,
both were increased by adding OM-X. It showed that OM-X stimulates macrophages
directly and activates the immune system (Chart2).
Furthermore,
we administered OM-X to the mice and measured the expression levels of 597 genes
in the liver. As a result, the expression level of 4 genes increased and the expression
level of 23 genes decreased. Since the decreased 23 genes were involved into inflammation
and apoptosis (cell death), this result suggested that the ingestion of OM-X
provides the effects of suppressing inflammation in the liver and protecting
cells (Chart3).
Last updated 2024/01/05