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USDA, Agricultural Research Service, Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center, Grand Forks, ND 58202
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: preeves{at}gfhnrc.ars.usda.gov.
| ABSTRACT |
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| Introduction |
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That Cu specifically could contribute to the health effects of beans is evidenced by a variety of findings. On the one hand, Cu intake is thought to be low in a considerable proportion of the population (11–13), suggesting room for improvement in Cu status. On the other hand, Cu deficiency has been shown to promote, and improving Cu status shown to prevent, pathological impairment of heart and blood vessel structure and function (14,15), development of experimentally induced cancers (16,17), and impaired glucose metabolism (18) and bone health (19). A potential problem with promoting bean consumption to improve Cu status, however, is that studies like those above are usually done with purified or semipurified diets, the former consisting entirely of purified chemicals, the latter containing more natural sources of protein and fat but with vitamins and minerals being added as purified chemicals. The use of natural food as a source of Cu to test for health effects has not been done. This is important because it is known from studies of other minerals that the absorption and utilization of a mineral from food can depend on the matrix (the surrounding complex of chemical structures) within which the mineral resides. For instance, zinc and Fe bioavailability from plant foods are known to be impaired by the plant's phytate content (20) (21). And, in a recent study from this center, selenium bioavailability from buckwheat, as tested by functional measures, was lower than for purified compounds of selenium (22).
To test whether a food source of Cu is beneficial to health, we must first know whether Cu is available for absorption from that food and whether this absorption has a functional outcome. Prior studies using isotopic labeling techniques to measure absorption have had mixed results. In a human study, percent Cu absorption from a vegetarian diet containing legumes was shown to be lower than for a nonvegetarian diet, although total absorption was greater due to higher Cu content (23). Another study showed that Cu absorption from some plant-based foods was equal to a reference dose of labeled Cu, whereas that from others, including soybeans, was more poorly absorbed (24). In a rat study, Cu absorption from garbanzo beans was found not to differ from that from a CuSO4 diet (25). In this study, we used dry edible beans to test the hypothesis that they can serve as a source of functionally available Cu. Pinto beans are appropriate for this study, because they are a rich source of Cu, a versatile component of normal human diets, and the most highly consumed dry edible bean in this country (26).
| Methods and Materials |
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Experimental design. The objective of this study was to use rats to determine the relative bioavailability of Cu from pinto beans. This was accomplished by comparing the recovery of Cu status when Cu-deficient (CuD)2 rats were fed 2 levels of beans to that obtained in similar rats fed graded amounts of Cu as CuSO4. As illustrated in the experimental design (Fig. 1), 88 weanling male Sprague-Dawley rats were fed an AIN-93G diet (27) that was either Cu deficient (n = 72) or Cu adequate (CuA; n = 16) for 4 wk. At this time, 8 CuD and 8 CuA rats were killed for the determination of organ Cu as verification of the effectiveness of the CuD diet in causing Cu deficiency. The remaining CuD rats were randomly divided into 8 groups of 8 rats each and fed AIN-93G-based diets (27) that provided (nominally) 0, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, or 6 mg/kg of supplemental Cu as CuSO4 or 2 concentrations of Cu by the addition of either 10 or 20% of pinto beans to the diet, where the beans provided all of the dietary Cu. The 8 remaining CuA rats were maintained on the CuA diet. Rats were fed these diets for 2 wk before termination of the experiment. Groups 2–7 (see Fig. 1) were used to construct the standard response curve for the recovery of Cu-dependent factors, including organ Cu concentrations, activity of enzymes [serum ceruloplasmin (EC 1.16.3.1), liver and heart cytochrome c oxidase (CCO; EC 1.9.3.1), and serum superoxide dismutase 3 (SOD3; EC 1.15.1.1)], heart weight, blood hemoglobin, and liver Fe concentration. The degree of recovery of each of these factors in animals fed the bean diets was compared with the standard response curves to determine the bioavailability of Cu relative to that from CuSO4.
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Dietary Cu analysis was done by dry-ashing the sample (28), dissolution in aqua regia, and measurement by atomic absorption spectroscopy (model 503, Perkin Elmer). The assay method was validated by simultaneous assays of a wheat flour reference standard (RM 8436; National Institute of Standards and Technology) and a dietary reference standard (HNRC-2A) that was developed by the Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center. Cu measurements of these reference standards fell within the specified ranges. Analysis of the bean powder alone indicated a Cu concentration of 6.46 ± 0.08 (SEM, 5 samples) mg Cu/kg of dried beans. Three samples of each diet were analyzed, with nominal and measured (mean ± SEM) values as follows: CuD, 0.30 ± 0.01 and 0.33 ± 0.03 (2 batches); CuD+0.5, 0.83 ± 0.03; CuD+1, 1.34 ± 0.04; CuD+2, 2.22 ± 0.07; CuD+4, 3.73 ± 0.11; CuD+6 and CuA, 6.38 ± 0.11; CuD+10% beans, 0.91 ± 0.01; and CuD+20% beans, 1.55 ± 0.01 mg Cu/kg of diet.
Blood and tissue collection and organ mineral analysis. After being fed their respective diets for either 4 or 6 wk, each rat was anesthetized with a mixture of ketamine HCl (Fort Dodge Laboratories; 100 g/L) and xylazine (Phoenix Laboratories; 20 g/L) in a ratio of 1.37:1; 1 mL of the mixture/kg body wt was injected intraperitoneally. Blood was drawn from the abdominal aorta and 1 mL was placed in an EDTA-treated test tube for hemoglobin determination by a cell counter (Cell-Dyn, Model 3500CS, Abbott Diagnostics). We placed the remaining blood into glass test tubes for coagulation and collection of serum (following centrifugation at 3000 x g; 20 min) that was used for the enzyme measurements described below.
Liver, heart, and kidney were excised from each rat for liver and heart enzyme measurements, described below, and for mineral analysis of all 3 organs. Organ Cu concentrations and liver Fe concentration were determined by lyophilizing and digesting organ samples with nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide (29) and measuring mineral concentration by inductively coupled argon plasma emission spectroscopy (Model 1140, Jarrell-Ash).
Enzyme assays. Serum ceruloplasmin was measured by determination of its oxidase activity (30,31), a unit of activity being the amount of enzyme that catalyzed the oxidation of 1 µmol of o-dianisidine/min at 30°C.
SOD-3 activity was assayed in serum by monitoring the inhibition of acetylated cytochrome-c reduction at pH 10 (32,33). A unit of activity was defined as the amount of enzyme that inhibited the reduction of acetylated ferricytochrome-c by 50%.
For measurement of CCO activity, liver and heart samples were weighed and homogenized in 10 volumes of either liver-homogenizing buffer (0.25 mol/L sucrose, 10 mmol/L HEPES, and 0.1 mmol/L EGTA, pH 7.4) or heart-homogenizing buffer (0.225 mol/L mannitol, 0.075 mol/L sucrose, 20 mmol/L HEPES, and 1 mmol/L EGTA). The homogenates were centrifuged at 500 g; 10 min to remove debris and the resultant supernatants were used to assay CCO activity. We conducted all processing steps at 4°C. CCO was assayed by monitoring the oxidation of ferrocytochrome-c at 550 nm and 30°C (34), a unit of activity being the amount of enzyme that oxidized 1 µmol of ferrocytochrome-c/min.
Statistical analysis. Values of all variables are presented as means ± SEM. Simple contrast comparisons (Table 2) were done by the Student's t test (35). Body wt at termination of experiment was compared by 1-way ANOVA followed by Tukey's studentized range test for comparisons between groups (35).
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| Results and Discussion |
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Body weight gain. Weight gain did not differ between any groups after 4 wk of feeding CuA and CuD diets (Fig. 2). In the subsequent 2 wk, during which replenishment occurred, weight gain in rats fed Cu as CuSO4 (CuA) was greater (P < 0.05) than in rats fed diets without supplemental Cu (CuD). Rats fed the 10% bean diet gained more than CuD-fed rats. Rats fed the 20% bean diet tended not to gain as well as those fed the CuA or 10% bean diet (P < 0.10). From these findings, we conclude that none of the effects of pinto beans on Cu status were influenced by variation in weight gain.
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Cu-dependent enzymes. Recoveries of serum and tissue enzyme activities with Cu repletion with beans were also comparable to those with CuSO4 (Fig. 5). Calculated RBVs indicated that beans were equal to CuSO4 in causing recovery of serum ceruloplasmin, liver CCO, and heart CCO activities (Fig. 4). Serum SOD3 activity showed better (P < 0.05) recovery with beans than with CuSO4 (RBV = 134%).
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18 d compared with
9 d for hepatic mitochondria (43). Thus, the relatively slow turnover rate of heart mitochondria may have contributed to the reduced recovery of CCO activity seen after the 14 d of Cu supplementation provided in this study. Cu-dependent variables. The recoveries of 3 disparate variables known to be affected by dietary Cu deficiency were also shown to be equivalent with either bean or CuSO4 consumption (Fig. 6). The anemia of Cu deficiency, as represented by depressed hemoglobin, was reversed equivalently by replenishing diets with either beans or CuSO4. This was evidenced visually by superposition of the data points (Fig. 6A) and by a calculated RBV not different from 100% (Fig. 4). Similarly, the cardiac enlargement of Cu deficiency, as illustrated by an increase in heart wt:body wt ratio, was reversed equally by feeding of Cu in bean or CuSO4 diets (Figs. 4 and 6B). Elevated liver Fe concentration, commonly observed in severe dietary Cu deficiency, was also reversed to equal degrees by feeding beans or CuSO4 (Figs. 4 and 6C).
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Our conclusion that Cu in beans is readily bioavailable must be somewhat tempered by the fact that not all levels of Cu up to the recommended amount for rats were tested. Although it would be impractical to attempt to provide the complete Cu requirement with beans, a logical next step would be to add Cu to the bean diets with elemental and/or other food sources of Cu to determine whether Cu status is maintained at higher levels of intake in the presence of beans. This study does show, however, that when Cu status is low, pinto beans can resupply Cu as well as inorganic Cu.
It is interesting that absorption of Cu from beans has apparently not been impaired by the antinutrients known to be present (20,21,44). A possible explanation may lie in cooking the beans, which is known to degrade such antinutrients (44). The fact that the calculated RBVs for liver and heart Cu concentration and serum SOD3 showed greater recovery when Cu was supplied as dry beans suggests that beans may enhance entry to some Cu pools. Perhaps cooking can not only degrade antinutrients but create pronutrients. This phenomenon requires further exploration.
Care must be taken in translating the above findings to humans in as much as previous human studies have indicated that vegetarian diets (23), and specifically, soybeans (24), appear to impair absorption of Cu relative to reference materials. The current study points to the need for additional studies in humans to examine Cu delivery of specific products, such as pinto beans, via measurements of functional indices that are dependent on Cu.
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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| FOOTNOTES |
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2 Abbreviations used: CCO, cytochrome c oxidase; CuA, copper-adequate; CuD, copper-deficient; SOD3, superoxide dismutase 3; RBV, relative bioavailability value. ![]()
Manuscript received 26 July 2006. Initial review completed 26 August 2006. Revision accepted 9 October 2006.
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