Physiologic and epigenetic effects of nutrients on disease pathways

Soo-Hyun Park; Jaein Lee; Jin-Taek Hwang; Min-Yu Chung

doi:10.4162/nrp.2023.17.1.13

Physiologic and epigenetic effects of nutrients on disease pathways

Nutr Res Pract. 2023 Feb;17(1):13-31. doi: 10.4162/nrp.2023.17.1.13. Epub 2022 Jul 22.

Authors

Soo-Hyun Park¹, Jaein Lee^{1

2}, Jin-Taek Hwang^{1

3}, Min-Yu Chung¹

Affiliations

¹ Food Functionality Research Division, Korea Food Research Institute, Wanju 55365, Korea.
² Department of Food Science and Technology, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju 54896, Korea.
³ Department of Food Biotechnology, University of Science and Technology, Daejeon 34113, Korea.

Abstract

Background/objectives: Epigenetic regulation by nutrients can influence the development of specific diseases. This study sought to examine the effect of individual nutrients and nutrient families in the context of preventing chronic metabolic diseases via epigenetic regulation. The inhibition of lipid accumulation and inflammation by nutrients including proteins, lipids, vitamins, and minerals were observed, and histone acetylation by histone acetyltransferase (HAT) was measured. Correlative analyses were also performed.

Materials/methods: Nutrients were selected according to information from the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. Selected nutrient functionalities, including the attenuation of fatty acid-induced lipid accumulation and lipopolysaccharide-mediated acute inflammation were evaluated in mouse macrophage Raw264.7 and mouse hepatocyte AML-12 cells. Effects of the selected nutrients on in vitro HAT inhibition were also evaluated.

Results: Nitric oxide (NO) production correlated with HAT activity, which was regulated by the amino acids group, suggesting that amino acids potentially contribute to the attenuation of NO production via the inhibition of HAT activity. Unsaturated fatty acids tended to attenuate inflammation by inhibiting NO production, which may be attributable to the inhibition of in vitro HAT activity. In contrast to water-soluble vitamins, the lipid-soluble vitamins significantly decreased NO production. Water- and lipid-soluble vitamins both exhibited significant inhibitory activities against HAT. In addition, calcium and manganese significantly inhibited lipid accumulation, NO production, and HAT activity.

Conclusions: Several candidate nutrients and their family members may have roles in the prevention of diseases, including hepatic steatosis and inflammation-related diseases (i.e., nonalcoholic steatohepatitis) via epigenetic regulation. Further studies are warranted to determine which specific amino acids, unsaturated fatty acids and lipid-soluble vitamins or specific minerals influence the development of steatosis and inflammatory-related diseases.

Keywords: Obesity; acetylation; inflammation; nitric oxide; nutrients.