Litigation

Can cinnamon extract prevent cell death following a traumatic brain injury?

By Michael Kaplen

The United States Department of Agriculture reports on new research being conducting on the use of cinnamon extracts to prevent cell death following a traumatic brain injury.

According the department, the researchers have reported findings that the cinnamon compounds studied prevented isolated brain cells from swelling, one of the many abnormal conditions resulting from traumatic brain injury and stroke due to impaired blood flow to the brain.

The scientists used isolated glial cells?cells that support essential elements of neural tissue found in the brain and spinal cord?and put them in a culture solution. When the cell cultures were deprived of oxygen and glucose for five hours, the researchers measured the function of the mitochondrial inner membrane in the glial cells. They found a nearly 40 percent decline in the mitochondrial membrane potential due to the lack of oxygen and glucose.

The researchers then exposed some of the cells to a cinnamon extract, while other cells served as ?nonexposed? controls. The reduction in the membrane potential was alleviated in the presence of the cinnamon extract.

Ninety minutes later, the researchers measured volume of the glial cells. They found that cell volume among the oxygen- and glucose-deprived cells had increased by more than 34 percent. But this increased swelling was absent in the presence of cinnamon polyphenol extract at the highest level tested.

Because neuroglial cell swelling can contribute to further neuronal injury, the study indicates that further animal-model research is warranted, according to the authors. The researchers caution that table cinnamon compounds may accumulate in the body and should not be ingested consistently as more than a spice over long periods of time.

The study was published this year in Experimental Neurology.

Full post as published by Brain Injury News and Information on November 23, 2009 (boomark / email).