Flavonoid-rich Apples and Apple Products Protect Cells from Damage

08/08/06 Apples have long been a symbol of health, and doctors encourage Americans to add more fruits and vegetables, including apples and apple products, to their daily diets. Now, researchers Dr. Eric Gershwin and Carl Keen at the University of California, Davis have discovered a new way in which flavonoid-rich apples and apple products protect cells from the type of damage that leads to heart disease and age-related cancers.

"We discovered how the unique mix of nutrients found in apples and apple products can actually help improve health, starting at the cellular level," says Eric Gershwin, professor of medicine at the UC Davis School of Medicine.

According to the researchers, proper communication between cells in the body is vital to every aspect of life. But when that communication is disrupted in some fashion, cells can be damaged or even die, leading to various disease states. In this case, Gershwin and his colleagues found that the distinctive combination of nutrients in apples and apple products is able to protect cells from destruction by fighting off damage caused by unwelcome intruders in the body.

"It's almost like having a spam filter on your computer; the good emails get through and the bad emails get stopped," remarks Gershwin. "Here, the apple components we observed acted like the spam filter."

Earlier studies have shown that components in apples and apple products known as flavonoids work as antioxidants, taking up free oxygen radicals that can cause damage to DNA. The UC Davis study takes that research further by looking beyond the beneficial antioxidant effects that apples and apple products provide to recognizing the ability of flavonoids to promote the cellular communication and filter the harmful effects of unwanted intruders.

In the current study, Gershwin and his colleagues exposed human cells to an extract of an apple mash made from different apple varieties. The researchers revealed that the apple extract was able to protect the cells from the normally lethal damage by interfering with the pathway that would otherwise damage or kill cells in the body. This damage could have lead to an increased risk of heart disease and certain cancers, if it was without the assistance of apples and apple products.

"This research on apples and apple products has helped us discover a new frontier that extends beyond what we have known for a long time - that apples and apple products can contribute to better health," says Gershwin. He adds that further research will help identify additional mechanisms by which the nutrients in apples and apple products can be protective against disease.