Hello Esti

Jaundice and the breastfed baby. LM Gartner. LLLI conference, Session 132,
july 4, 1999.

And :

Bilirubin acts as antioxidant in the brain. S Hetchtel. 33rd Annual Winter
Conference on Brain Research, 31/01/2000.

Both endogenous and naturally occurring compounds protect the brain against
oxidative damage by scavenging free radicals, presenters said here during
the 33rd annual Winter Conference on Brain Research.

"When women breastfeed, the babies have higher levels of bilirubin and are
healthier. Babies with higher bilirubin levels are more disease-resistant,"
said Dr. Sylvain Dore of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore,
Maryland. "Bilirubin also protects against retinopathy in premature babies."

Dr. Dore's research on the neuroprotective effect of bilirubin in the
hippocampus indicated that low concentrations of bilirubin decreased
oxygen-radical mediated injury, suggesting that bilirubin could act as an
antioxidant.

Experiments on cultured neurons showed that bilirubin protects against
oxidative stress by scavenging free radicals. The enzyme hemeoxygenase makes
bilirubin. When the researchers prevented bilirubin synthesis by knocking
out the gene for hemeoxygenase, there was twice the level of stroke damage
in mice, Dr. Dore reported.

"If we can modulate the [hemeoxygenase] enzyme, this might reduce damage
from stroke," Dr. Dore speculated.
On a similar theme, Dr. Remi Quirion of Douglas Hospital Centre at McGill
University, in Montreal, Canada, discussed natural products that might
retard Alzheimer's disease.

"We don't know what is the first step," said Dr. Quirion. "A-beta
[beta-amyloid] peptide could stimulate free radical production which will
kill cells. Some compounds, like insulin-like growth factor, protect neurons
against and rescue them from beta-amyloid toxicity." Dr. Quirion found that
A-beta fragments are toxic to rat hippocampal neurons in cell culture.
"The A-beta-induced toxicity is reversed by a gingko biloba extract, Egb
761," Dr. Quirion said. "This is a well-defined extract made in Germany by
Boehringer Ingelheim. We tested 20 to 25 different extracts on the market.
Most are not effective--they don't contain the active ingredient. The
flavonoid fraction contains the active ingredient, but we don't know the
exact compound. Three of four extracts are very potent."

"All our work is in vitro. We plan to do animal studies next, to see whether
these compounds rescue and protect neurons in vivo," Dr. Quirion concluded.

Kindly
Françoise Railhet
Manager of the LLL France Medical Associates Program
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