Tag Archives: Italy

Resveratrol: just a fair-weather friend?

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JUne 2014Since its first mention in a Japansee article in 19391, over the years many beneficial effects have been attributed to the natural compound, resveratrol—anticancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-aging—which is even used in skincare cosmetic. Although a large number of studies suggest its health benefits, recently some reports have been questioning these potentials.

Resveratrol is a natural phenol and antioxidant compound found in various colored vegetables and fruit, especially in the skin of red grape. Its name comes probably from the combination if the term resorcinol (chemical compund) and Veratrum (the plant where resveratrol was first isolated). It is thought to influence inflammation, aging, neuronal degeneration, and metabolism through the serine deacetylase, sirtuin-1 (SIRT-1), the cAMP pathway, or AMP-activated protein kinase2. However the exact mechanism of action is not known. A new role for resveratrol as a partial agonist of the estrogen receptor alpha (ERalpha) has been recently described3. According to this study, resveratrol binds to the ERalpha that is recruited to the interleukin-6 (IL-6) promoter and alters the binding of coregulators, such as SIRT-1, and the activity of transcriptional activators, leading to reduced inflammation. Resveratrol was identified in a previous screening for ERalpha agonists that inhibit IL-6 transciption4; thus resveratrol may have a selective role on the ERalpha pathway, inhibiting inflammation without promoting cell proliferation.

The amount of resveratrol found in foods varies greatly. It is mainly found in the skin of red grapes, red wine, peanuts, berries, and in lower amount in cocoa powder and dark chocolate5. However, the amount of resveratrol in foods is thought to be not enough to justify and mediate its effects. To understand whether resveratrol levels present in the diet can influence inflammation, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and mortality in humans, a prospective cohort study has been conducted in the Chianti region in Italy (InCHIANTI—“Aging in the Chianti Region”), in a population-based sample of 783 community-dwelling men and women 65 years or older who consume a diet rich in resveratrol6. The group of researchers, who have been studying aging in this population for fifteen years, measured the concentration of resveratrol metabolites present in the urine and found that it was not associated with inflammatory markers, cardiovascular disease, or cancer. This study shows that the amount of resveratrol present in the diet is not responsible for beneficial health effects. It is possible that the health benefits that come from the diet consumed in that region are not due to resveratrol, but to other substances present in the food. On the other hand resveratrol is rapidly metabolized in sulfate and glucuronide conjugates and it has long been believed that this could limit its bioavailability. However, a study from the University of Leicester shows that resveratrol is not rendered ineffective after it is metabolized by the body: it can be generated by resveratrol sulfate and be even more effective than the un-metabolized compound7.

Supplements that contain high quantity of resveratrol are available in the market. However, people should be careful with them, because we still don’t know the repercussions of high amount of resveratrol on human health. A very recent study published on the June issue of The FASEB Journal shows that the use of resveratrol during pregnancy can have beneficial effects on the blood flow in the placenta and on the liver function (decreased placental inflammation and liver triglyceride deposition), but can increase fetal pancreatic mass and exocrine proliferation, leading to unknown consequences on the development of the fetus8.

To date, there are not definitive studies on the benefits of resveratrol. The literature is full of controversial or incomplete reports. Therefore, be careful in listening to advertisements that sell resveratrol as a health serum.

1Takaoka M, Resveratrol, a new phenolic compound, from Veratrum grandiflorum. M Takaoka, Journal of the Chemical Society of Japan, 193 (2012):1090-1100.

2Tennen RI, Michishita-Kioi E, Chua KF. “Finding a target for resveratrol”. Cell 2012,148 (3): 387–9.

3Nwachukwu J,Srinivasan S, Bruno NE, Parent AA, Hughes TS, Pollock JA, Gjyshi O, Cavett V, Nowak J, Garcia-Ordonez RD, Houtman R, Griffin PR, Kojetin DJ, Katzenellenbogen JA, Conkright MD, Nettles KW. Resveratrol modulates the inflammatory response via an estrogen receptor-signal integration network. eLife, (2014).

4Srinivasan S., Nwachukwu J.C., Parent AA, Cavett V, Nowak J, Hughes TS, Kojetin DJ, Katzenellenbogen JA, and Nettles KW. Ligand-binding dynamics rewire cellular signaling via estrogen receptor-alpha. Nat Chem Biol (2013) 9, 326-332.

5Hurst WJ, Glinski JA, Miller KB, Apgar J, Davey MH, Stuart DA. “Survey of the trans-resveratrol and trans-piceid content of cocoa-containing and chocolate products”. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (2008) 56 (18): 8374–8.

6Semba RD, Luigi Ferrucci L, Bartali B, Urpí-Sarda M, Zamora-Ros R, Sun K, Cherubini A, Bandinelli S, Andres-Lacueva C. Resveratrol Levels and All-Cause Mortality in Older Community-Dwelling Adults. JAMA Internal Medicine, (2014) May 12.

7Patel KR, Andreadi C, Britton RG, Horner-Glister E, Karmokar A, Sale S, Brown VA, Brenner DE, Singh R, Steward WP, Gescher AJ and Brown K. Sulfate Metabolites Provide an Intracellular Pool for Resveratrol Generation and Induce Autophagy with Senescence. Science Translational Medicine, (2013) Oct 2;5(205).

8Roberts VHJ, Pound LD, Thorn SR, Gillingham MB, Thornburg KL, Friedman JE, Frias AE, and Grove KL. Beneficial and cautionary outcomes of resveratrol supplementation in pregnant nonhuman primates. FASEB J. (2014) June 28:2466-2477.

Motherhood discrimination in science

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Novembre“The view of my colleagues is that for a man, an engineer is able to do what he is supposed to do, but for a woman, she always has to demonstrate she is able”1.

Nowadays, in the XXI century, women have obtained rights that rank them at the same level as men, but they still experience discrimination in many sectors of the society. While women participation has increased in almost all the professions in the last 20 years, they are still underrepresented in science, engineering, and technology (SET) sectors.

Although the number of women graduating and with high level of education in SET is not decreasing, the number of women at senior positions has reached a deadlock. The reasons for this gender disparity are different (i.e. long working hours, necessity to travel) and perpetuate masculine tradition in these settings.

A recent article by Herman C. et al.1 analyzes women discrimination in the scientific world focusing not on gender disparity, but on motherhood discrimination.  They interviewed women SET professionals working in multinational companies (MNCs) in three European Countries-Italy, France, and The Netherlands-where the proportion of women in SET is equivalent, but the norms for working parents and hour flexibility are different.  They divide the women in three different categories: assimilation, cul de sac, breaking the mould, and lying low.  Women who followed the assimilation strategy are those who accepted the existing structures and continued to work long hours and travel to fulfill their career aspiration. Another group of women who accepted the existing structure are those in the cul de sac category, who had stalled their career and had no more interest in advancing. A third group (breaking the mould), characterized by very ambitious and motivated women, didn’t conform to the existing structure and tried to change the norms to follow their career aspirations.  At last the lying low women retained their ambition, but were pushed away from their career progression by the corporation. They found women in all categories in the three countries with some peculiarity. For instance, In Italy, the assimilation system prevails because there are no norms for hour flexibility, therefore women have to conform to the system or quit the corporation. On the other hand, the lying low strategy has been institutionalized in France and is common in The Netherlands, where the norms for hour flexibility and part-time made this possible.

Despite the environment, many women returned to work part time and this, together with their new status as “mothers”, undermined their career opportunities. The same companies expressed their concern about their female employees coming back after maternity leave and failing to achieve higher levels of management. Although some women were still able to progress and achieve their career goals, these situations were considered exceptional.

In this study, the authors present for the first time an analysis of motherhood discrimination over women discrimination. As pointed out by the study, the situation can be different based on the Country, company norms and managers. To have a broader spectrum of the actual situation, the analysis has to be extended to different Countries and companies.

Women SET professionals have to face first gender discrimination, and then later in their career also motherhood discrimination, thus making their progression and life very hard. Studies, discussions, blogs on this topic underscore the “exceptionality” of successful mothers in SET sectors, and, I believe, in many others. How many studies do we need before this situation is going to change?

As a new mom, I would like to quote an interviewed woman in the study described here.

“I take care of my children first, because they won’t wait for me to grow up…”

Source

1Herman C, Lewis S, and Humbert AL. Women Scientists and Engineers in European Compnies: Putting Motherhood under the Microscope. Gender, Work and Organization, Vol.20 No.5 Sept 2013