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Broccoli helps the immune system to remove from lung disease-causing bacteria, experimentally established staff at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore (Maryland, USA).
To ensure proper operation of the lungs, white blood cells - macrophages - remove foreign matter and bacteria that can accumulate there and cause infection. This "purification system" is faulty in smokers and people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD, a combination of emphysema and bronchitis), which suffer from frequent infections.
Researchers have established that the chemical path in the lungs called NRF2, involved in the activation of macrophages, is destroyed by smoking. It was also found that sulforaphane - plant chemicals produced by broccoli, cauliflower and other cruciferous vegetables is damaged - is able to restore the path NRF2.
At the first stage of the experiment, scientists have defective macrophages from the lungs 43 people with COPD and treated them with two strains of bacteria commonly causing infections associated with COPD. In the presence of sulforaphane way NRF2 became stronger, and the ability of macrophages to recognize and absorb the bacteria recovered.
In the second phase, researchers exposed mice to environmental tobacco smoke for a week or six months. The result showed that both groups increased bacterial colonization of the lung, similar to that observed during COPD. But after treatment, mice sulforafanom their lungs became more clear in the bacterial respect. According to experts, not only sulforaphane activated a greater number of macrophages, but also improves the functionality already present cells.
Sulforaphane "lives " in the broccoli in the form of a substance precursor is converted into an active part under the influence of enzymes present in saliva, and intestinal bacteria. The concentration of this enzyme in all people are different, and the dose of sulforaphane, derived from food, each also has its own. To definitively determine whether a beneficial effect of sulforaphane-containing products on the immune defense is required to conduct experiments on humans.
Baltimore team of specialists has already begun the second phase of clinical trials of sulforaphane in patients with COPD. The purpose of this study - to determine whether this substance improves lung function and the results will be obtained no earlier than three years.
