Can colonic hydrogen derived from non-digestible saccharides substitute for ascorbic acid as an electron donor in vivo?

Research Project

Project/Area Number	16K12719
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	Eating habits
Research Institution	Shizuoka University
Principal Investigator	Nishimura Naomichi 静岡大学, 農学部, 教授 (10341679)
Project Period (FY)	2016-04-01 – 2018-03-31
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2017)
Budget Amount *help	¥3,510,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥810,000) Fiscal Year 2017: ¥1,950,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥450,000) Fiscal Year 2016: ¥1,560,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥360,000)
Keywords	水素 / 大腸発酵 / 抗酸化作用 / 難消化性糖質 / α-トコフェロール / アスコルビン酸 / α－トコフェロール / ビタミンE再生 / 抗酸化 / 栄養学 / 食と栄養
Outline of Final Research Achievements	Hydrogen molecule, which is produced by colonic fermentation of non-digestible saccharides, show the reducibility in vivo and then contribute to inhibited inflammation. Hydrogen have been reported to scavenge a potent reactive oxygen species, hydroxyl radical, in vitro. However, it remains unclear whether it will act by the same mechanism in vivo. In this study, we found that colonic hydrogen alleviates oxidative stress by promoting the regeneration of α-tocopherol as an electron donor in the adipose tissue. Hydrogen is a nonpolar molecule and its redox potential is very low, so the effect in adipose tissue is reasonable.