Functional food and autophagy.

• Main Author: Ong, Zhong Ren.
• Other Authors: School of Biological Sciences
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Science::Biological sciences
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/53823
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Pomegranate is a functional food that provides many health benefits. There are evidence supporting its neuroprotective and tumor-suppressive properties. However, pomegranate has not been reported to induce autophagy. Autophagy is a catabolic process whereby long-lived proteins and organelles are delivered to the lysosome for degradation. Autophagy clearance is essential for cellular homeostasis and its disruption is implicated in the development of neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. Thus, pomegranate can possibly elicit its neuroprotective effects via autophagy. In this study, we wanted to examine whether pomegranate can induce autophagy. Mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs), human neuroblastoma (SH-SY5Y) and embryonic kidney (HEK293) cells were treated with 50 to 300µg/ml pomegranate fruit extract and measured for levels of the autophagy marker LC3-II via immunoblot. Densitometric analysis showed that pomegranate significantly increased LC3-II conversion in SH-SY5Y and this is further confirmed by LC3-II flux assays. Significant increased in LC3-II conversion for HEK293 was also observed for pomegranate concentration above 300µg/ml. Our results show for the first time that pomegranate can induce autophagy. This has implications on future research to test pomegranate as an autophagy modulator for neurodegenerative disease prevention and treatment.