Longterm investigation of resveratol on management of metabolic syndrome osteoporosis, inflammation, and identification of plant derived anti-inflammatory compounds

Low-grade inflammation is associated with type 2 diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), non alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and osteoporosis. In animals resveratrol (found in grapes, berries etc.) has strong anti-inflammatory effects and is a promising compound with the potential to neutralize obesity-induced diseases and osteoporosis. However, the health promoting effects of resveratrol in humans are only studied sparsely. The present project focuses on the effect of resveratrol on insulin sensitivity, inflammation, bone and fatty liver disease in a long term study in humans. Also resveratrol metabolites will be investigated as they may possess positive effects. The precise intra-cellular anti-inflammatory targets of resveratrol will be studied in clinical trials and in cell culture systems. Also, as all health effects presuppose a channel of delivery, consumer acceptance of delivery of resveratrol as food additive, herbal medicine or as novel food is investigated. The project is outstanding as it combines a long term clinical study of resveratrol with several state of the art techniques such as MR-spectroscopy for determination of fat infiltration in liver and skeletal muscle, real time qPCR for gene expression analysis, polaro¬graphic oxygen measurements for mitochondrial activity, SILAC for proteomics, and LC-MS/MS for quantification of resveratrol (and metabolites) in biofluids and tissues. We expect to prove that resveratrol in humans can neutralize the detrimental effect of obesity on whole body metabolism, like low grade chronic inflammation, insulin resistance and lipid infiltration-/inflammation in liver and skeletal muscle. In addition, extracts of selected vegetables, herbs and berries will be investigated for their anti-inflammatory effects on human adipose tissue to find other natural compounds that may be useful to prevent low-grade inflammation seen in association with obesity.