Pucker Up! Tart Cherries and Cranberries as an Alternative Solution for Inflammation
Jacalynne Hernandez-Lee & Gillian Manning
Sacred Heart School of Halifax
Abstract:
In this experiment the anti-inflammatory properties of tart cherry and cranberry juices were investigated in a model of inflammation. Standard medication for IBD cannot be tolerated by all IBD patients while other patients do not respond to the drug with improvements. There are elevated amounts of IL-8 and TNF in the bodies of IBD patients. IL-8 produced from tissue cells attracts white blood cells from the blood stream to the tissue causing inflammation. TNF, another cytokine produced by cells increase the production of IL-8 in cells. There are widespread suggestions that cranberries and sour cherries have anti-inflammatory properties. HT29 epithelial cells grown on plastic plates were exposed to various harmless concentrations of neutralized juices. The supernatants of the juices were collected and read for IL-8 production using an ELISA assay. Cranberries, but not sour cherries, were shown to inhibit IL-8 production in HT29 cells. Research should go into finding and enriching of the active ingredient(s) in the cranberry. This experiment did not consider that the active ingredients in cranberries may be modified when going through the stomach. Future experiments should be done using different models of inflammation as the cranberry and sour cherry may have other anti-inflammatory properties.