I would like to know opinions of medical doctors, nutritionists, gastroenterologists and physiologists about models (rodents or in vitro experiments) to tryout the effects of dietary bioactive compounds isolated from foods on different markers of human diseases or health. My question is not the way drugs are tested but dietary compounds which later will be eaten as part of a complex diet. For instance, bioactive peptides from cow milk on arterial pressure.
This is a huge question. In general, from the medical point of view, such studies never give definite answers and are only the first step. The effectiveness of a tested compound in vitro or in animal models is not a prove that it works the same way in human or, IF it works in the same way, that such activity is of clinical importance. The typical example is resveratrol from grapes - most studies made in animals or in vitro, lots of them very promising, but in clinical trials the effectiveness restricted and data confusing.
On the other hand resveratrol is a good example of the above mentioned multi-step strategy. Just a few days ago Seidman et al. showed that resveratrol decreases noise-Induced cyclooxygenase-2 expression in the rat cochlea. COX-2 levels are induced following noise exposure so showing the effectiveness of resveratrol in rats may open the way for future studies in humans that are at risk of noise-induced hearing loss.
Of course we have to remember that bioactive compounds from foods interact and the final influence of several foods does not reflect the sum of their bioactive compounds but also internal (and external) interactions. Anti-oxidative compounds (for example resveratrol) are good example here, because in cell they act as cascades.
Thank you very much!. It sounds very interesting, I will look for the last studies on resveratrol.
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