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Nutritional Epidemiology
Research Communication

Phytoestrogen Concentrations in Serum from Japanese Men and Women over Forty Years of Age

Michael S. Morton^*, Osamu Arisaka, Noriko Miyake^**, Liam D. Morgan and Bronwen A. J. Evans¹

^* Department of Medical Biochemistry and Department of Child Health, University of Wales College of Medicine, Heath Park, Cardiff, CF14 4XN, UK; Department of Pediatrics, Dokkyo University School of Medicine, Mibu, Tochigi 321, Japan; and ^** Department of Clinical Pathology, Juntendo University School of Medicine, Tokyo 113, Japan

¹To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: evansba{at}cardiff.ac.uk.

Asian individuals have much lower incidences of prostate and breast cancer than populations from Western developed countries. They also consume a lower fat, higher fiber diet, with a large intake of phytoestrogens. These phytoestrogens may protect against hormone-dependent cancers and other diseases. Our study used established gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) methodologies to measure the concentrations of four phytoestrogens (daidzein, genistein, equol and enterolactone) in serum samples obtained from Japanese men (n = 102) and women (n = 125) > 40 y old. The results were compared with those obtained with samples from the UK. The Japanese men and women had higher (P < 0.001) concentrations of circulating daidzein, genistein and equol than individuals from the UK. The mean concentration of genistein in Japanese men, for example, was 492.7 nmol/L, compared with 33.2 nmol/L in men from the UK. The two populations, however, had similar serum concentrations of enterolactone. Furthermore, 58% of the Japanese men and 38% of the Japanese women had equol concentrations > 20 nmol/L, compared with none of the UK men and 2.2% of the UK women. These results support previously published GC-MS results from studies with low numbers of samples.

KEY WORDS: • phytoestrogens • soy • Japanese • serum