Chocolate Consumers and Lymphocyte-to-Monocyte Ratio: A Working Hypothesis from a Preliminary Report of a Pilot Study in Celiac Subjects

Anna Raguzzini; Giovanna Poce; Sara Consalvi; Elisabetta Toti; Francesca Palmacci; Mariangela Biava; Ilaria Peluso

doi:10.3390/antiox8100440

Chocolate Consumers and Lymphocyte-to-Monocyte Ratio: A Working Hypothesis from a Preliminary Report of a Pilot Study in Celiac Subjects

Antioxidants (Basel). 2019 Oct 1;8(10):440. doi: 10.3390/antiox8100440.

Authors

Anna Raguzzini¹, Giovanna Poce², Sara Consalvi³, Elisabetta Toti⁴, Francesca Palmacci⁵, Mariangela Biava⁶, Ilaria Peluso⁷

Affiliations

¹ Research Centre for Food and Nutrition, Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA-AN), 00178 Rome, Italy. anna.raguzzini@crea.gov.it.
² Department of Chemistry and Technologies of Drug, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy. giovanna.poce@uniroma1.it.
³ Department of Chemistry and Technologies of Drug, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy. sara.consalvi@uniroma1.it.
⁴ Research Centre for Food and Nutrition, Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA-AN), 00178 Rome, Italy. elisabetta.toti@crea.gov.it.
⁵ Department of Chemistry and Technologies of Drug, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy. f_ra_1991@hotmail.it.
⁶ Department of Chemistry and Technologies of Drug, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy. mariangela.biava@uniroma1.it.
⁷ Research Centre for Food and Nutrition, Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA-AN), 00178 Rome, Italy. i.peluso@tiscali.it.

Abstract

Background and aim: The aim of this work was to evaluate the relationship between platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) and lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR) with habitual consumption of dark chocolate in a group of celiac subjects in which chocolate consumption and lower neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) association had already been observed. Additionally, due to the known anti-nutrient effect on iron absorption, we evaluated red blood cell count (RBC), mean corpuscular volume (MCV) and hemoglobin (Hb) values.

Methods: Chocolate consumers and non-consumers were matched for sex, menopausal status, NLR values over the previously suggested cut off (2.32) for celiac patients, and co-morbidities.

Results: Chocolate consumers had high LMR compared to non-consumers, whereas no differences were observed between chocolate consumers and non-consumers in RBC, MCV, Hb and PLR. However, similar number of subjects had PLR higher than the previously suggested cut off (143.7) for celiac disease.

Conclusions: This preliminary report suggests a working hypothesis for larger studies aimed at establishing cut off values for LMR in celiac patients and the modulation of this marker by dietary antioxidants.

Keywords: diet; immunity; inflammation.