We set up a cell culture model that will be useful for future vitamin B6 bioavailability research. NO synthesis requires several essential nutrients as cofactors, including arginine, niacin, riboflavin, calcium and iron. Very little information is currently available about nutritional regulation of NO bioavailability. Nutritional factors that alter bioavailability of NO is an exciting and important new research area, with many applications to Colorado agriculture. Our opening foray into NO bioavailability research has been to evaluate effects of a nutrient deficiency on NO synthesis in macrophages, which are part of the immune system.
Oxidative stress contributes to cardiovascular disease and other inflammatory conditions.
We tested the hypothesis that decreased Cu,Zn-SOD activity in macrophages caused by copper deficiency in rats alters nitric oxide production. These processes in turn affect prevention and development of cancers, atherosclerosis and inflammatory disease. This approach opens the arena of bioavailability to prevention of prominent Americans diseases that share common abberations in NO biology. The net effect is to dysregulate control of tissue mass, promoting the hyperplasia of cancers, atherosclerosis and inflammatory disease. This year, three graduate students have worked on this new thrust.