http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0015358
Garlic Accelerates Red Blood Cell Turnover and Splenic Erythropoietic Gene
Expression in Mice: Evidence for Erythropoietin-Independent Erythropoiesis
Bünyamin Akgül1,2, Kai-Wei Lin1, Hui-Mei Ou Yang1,3, Yen-Hui Chen1,4,
Tzu-Huan Lu1,3, Chien-Hsiun Chen1,3, Tateki Kikuchi1,4, Yuan-Tsong Chen1,3,
Chen-Pei D. Tu1,5*
Abstract
Garlic (Allium sativum) has been valued in many cultures both for its
health
effects and as a culinary flavor enhancer. Garlic's chemical complexity is
widely thought to be the source of its many health benefits, which include,
but are not limited to, anti-platelet, procirculatory, anti-inflammatory,
anti-apoptotic, neuro-protective, and anti-cancer effects. While a growing
body of scientific evidence strongly upholds the herb's broad and potent
capacity to influence health, the common mechanisms underlying these
diverse
effects remain disjointed and relatively poorly understood. We adopted a
phenotype-driven approach to investigate the effects of garlic in a mouse
model. We examined RBC indices and morphologies, spleen histochemistry, RBC
half-lives and gene expression profiles, followed up by qPCR and immunoblot
validation. The RBCs of garlic-fed mice register shorter half-lives than
the
control. But they have normal blood chemistry and RBC indices. Their
spleens
manifest increased heme oxygenase 1, higher levels of iron and bilirubin,
and presumably higher CO, a pleiotropic gasotransmitter. Heat shock genes
and those critical for erythropoiesis are elevated in spleens but not in
bone marrow. The garlic-fed mice have lower plasma erythropoietin than the
controls, however. Chronic exposure to CO of mice on garlic-free diet was
sufficient to cause increased RBC indices but again with a lower plasma
erythropoietin level than air-treated controls. Furthermore, dietary garlic
supplementation and CO treatment showed additive effects on reducing plasma
erythropoietin levels in mice. Thus, garlic consumption not only causes
increased energy demand from the faster RBC turnover but also increases the
production of CO, which in turn stimulates splenic erythropoiesis by an
erythropoietin-independent mechanism, thus completing the sequence of
feedback regulation for RBC metabolism. Being a pleiotropic
gasotransmitter,
CO may be a second messenger for garlic's other physiological effects.
Citation: Akgül B, Lin K-W, Ou Yang H-M, Chen Y-H, Lu T-H, et al. (2010)
Garlic Accelerates Red Blood Cell Turnover and Splenic Erythropoietic Gene
Expression in Mice: Evidence for Erythropoietin-Independent Erythropoiesis.
PLoS ONE 5(12): e15358. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0015358
Editor: Steven R. Ellis, University of Louisville, United States of America
Received: August 15, 2010; Accepted: November 15, 2010; Published:
December 29, 2010
Copyright: © 2010 Akgül et al. This is an open-access article distributed
under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided
the
original author and source are credited.
Funding: This work was supported by grants from the National Research
Program for Genomic Medicine, Taiwan Authority (National Genotyping Core,
NSC-95-3112-B-001-011 to YTC), and the Genomics and Proteomics Program,
Academia Sinica. C-PDT was supported by Academia Sinica and the National
Science Council (Taiwan Authority) during residence in Academia Sinica. The
funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision
to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests
exist.
* E-mail: unh@psu.edu
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