Broccoli May Hold Key to Slowing COPD Progression

By Crystal Phend, Staff Writer, MedPage
TodayPublished: September 17, 2008
Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD;
Emeritus Professor University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
BALTIMORE, Sept. 17 --
An antioxidant found in broccoli may reduce oxidative stress that leads to lung damage in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), researchers said.
Sulforaphane restored antioxidant gene expression in a human bronchial epithelial cell line model of COPD, Shyam Biswal, Ph.D., of Johns Hopkins University, and colleagues reported in the Sept. 15 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
In their series of experiments, lungs of COPD patients showed markedly decreased levels of key anti-inflammatory antioxidants and the protein that stabilizes these nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (NRF2)-dependent antioxidants against degradation.
Since both factors were linked to COPD severity, the findings suggest that these compounds could be developed to halt COPD, the researchers said. /.../