Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a diabetic complication marked by albuminuria and a decline of the glomerular filtration rate. Diabetic kidneys are defective in the autophagy process and mitochondrial function and their enhancement of activity alleviates the pathology. In this paper, we developed a mouse model of DN by a combined treatment of a high-fat diet and streptozotocin after unilateral nephrectomy and supplementation with flower or leaf extracts of Abelmoschus manihot (AM) were tested. The preventive effects of the extracts on DN pathology and changes on autophagy and mitochondrial proteins were investigated. DN mice showed a significant increase in fasting blood glucose, plasma creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, and urinary albumin levels. Periodic acid–Schiff and Sirius red staining of the diabetic kidney presented a significant change in glomerular and tubular structures that was associated with podocyte loss and fibrotic protein accumulation. These changes were attenuated by AM extract treatment in DN mice. In addition, hepatic injury, proinflammatory cytokines, and lipid accumulation were decreased by AM extracts in DN mice. As a protective mechanism, AM extracts significantly increased the expression of proteins by regulating autophagy and mitochondrial dynamics, which potentially prevented the kidney and liver from accumulating pathogenic proteins and dysfunctional mitochondria, which alleviated the progression of DN.

The objectives of this research were to evaluate antioxidant activities and nutritional components, including phenolic acid, catechin, organic acid, sugar, and amino acid, of persimmon juice from persimmons grown in different regions around Korea. Persimmon (Diospyros kaki) exhibits potent antioxidant effects in DPPH, ABTS, reducing power, and FRAP methods of analysis. The levels of nutritional constituents showed significant differences among all the samples. In particular, tartaric acid, glucose, gallic acid, epicatechin gallate and aspartic acid were observed to be the predominant component for each of their general chemical groups, with total average contents of 1876.51 mg/kg, 62.69 g/kg, 12.73 mg/kg, 208.99 mg/kg, and 31.84 mg/100 g, respectively. Interestingly, persimmons from the Hadong region presented the highest sugar (130.60 g/kg), phenolic acid (42.27 mg/kg), and catechin (527.97 mg/kg) contents in comparison with other regional samples. Moreover, this location exhibited the greatest antioxidant activity with highest total phenolic (298.01 mg GAE/kg) and flavonoid (32.11 mg/kg RE) contents. Our results suggest that strong antioxidant activities of persimmons correlate with high phenolic acid and catechin contents, particularly gallic acid and epicatechin gallate. Additionally, these two compounds may be key factors when considering the useful ingredients of persimmon.

This research was the first to demonstrate changes in nutritional compositions (isoflavone and CLA) from the 50% methanol extracts of soy-powder milk (SPM) and soy-powder yogurt (SPY) through fermentation using Lactobacillus plantarum S48 and P1201 strains. The radical scavenging activities and protective effects against oxidative stress in LLC-PK1 cells were also investigated. The average physicochemical characteristics including acidity and viable cell number as well as β-glucosidase activity increased with 0.2 → 0.7%, 7.5 → 9.8 log cfu/mL, and 0.0 3 → 1.75 U/g in SPYs. Total average isoflavones were considerably reduced (3180.3 → 2018.3 μg/g) with the increase of aglycone contents (191.8 → 770.2 μg/g), especially, daidzein exhibited the most remarkable increase rate (98.6 → 460.9 μg/g; > 4.8 times) during fermentation. The CLA and total phenolics also increased with significant differences (ND → 1.6 mg/g; 2.4 → 3.6 mg/GAE/g) between SPM and SPY. Interestingly, the cis-9, trans-11 CLA showed approximately 90% in total content. Moreover, the scavenging capacities against three radicals markedly increased with about 30% in SPYs, as the following order: ABTS > hydroxyl > DPPH. The protective effects on oxidative stress (pyrogallol: O2-, SNP: NO, and SIN-1: ONOO-) were also observed high cell viabilities (>10%) under LLC-PK1 cellular system. Our results suggest that SPY may be utilized as a potent source regarding natural antioxidants and beneficial components for health food and medical uses.