New Study Shows That Coffee Compounds Can Protect the Brain
According to a recent study published in Neurobiology of Stress the chronic early-life stress induced cognitive impairments can be mitigated by coffee’s polyphenols. Mice were found to benefit from dietary supplementation with 0.02% chlorogenic acid and 0.02% caffeic acid which are two crucial constituents of coffee polyphenols.
Understanding Coffee Polyphenols
These are phytochemicals that function as antioxidants like chlorogenic acids, flavonoids, and lignans. Such molecules shield cells from oxidative stress and alleviate inflammation that could result in chronic diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Additionally, they aid cognition while possibly staving off age-related neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s.
Chlorogenic acid is abundant in coffee and has been associated with better glucose metabolism and reduced risks of several chronic diseases. Coffee has another phenol called caffiec acid which is less common but also enjoys similar benefits because it guards against oxidation damage.
The Aim & Methodology Of The Research
Geertsema Jorine among other researchers sought to determine if addition of growing mice’s diet with chlorogenic and caffeic acid would protect them from cognitive impairment brought about by early-life stress. Early-life stress is known to decrease hippocampal neurogenesis or the production of new neurons by the brain; this leads to increased inflammation resulting into cognitive decline later in life.
In total, there were 47 male mice split into four groups whereby two received standard grain-based meal while other two consumed the same food containing an addition of 0.02% chlorogenic acid and 0.02% caffeic acid since day second till forty-two after birth. They were weaned at day twenty one while all groups continued on their respective diets up to day forty two when they were put on normal diet.
In each pair of dietary groups, one group was exposed to prenatal stress. Early-life stress was induced through restriction of bedding material and a 1 cm above-bedding sheet made from steel mesh.
Behavioural and Biological Assessment
Three behavioral tests including the Morris water maze (MWM), object recognition task (ORT) and the object location task (OLT) were conducted on the mice at four months of age in order to evaluate their cognitive function. Furthermore, researchers evaluated microglia quantity (which are immune cells for brain) and how well hippocampal neurogenesis is occurring within mouse’s brain tissues.
Key Results
Initially, mice undergoing early-life stress gained less weight while those on polyphenol supplement had more weight compared to their counterparts on standard diet during this period. The difference in weights between these groups had vanished by day 42.
Behavioral experiments demonstrated that early life stresses resulted into cognitive deficits as well as reduced numbers of microglia in the hippocampus among mice that were kept on a basal diet medication. Nevertheless, there was no such decline regarding mental functioning or reduction in microglia for mice receiving supplemented diets with polyphenols.
The study authors propose that coffee polyphenols protected the mice against cognitive impairments by sustaining microglia survival in the brain which can be due to other pathways linked with chlorogenic acid’s antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.
Implications and Future Research
“The supplementation of polyphenols in a diet emerges as a promising avenue for nutritional intervention in the context of mitigating the detrimental cognitive effects of ES [early stress] in males which are associated with microglial changes,” the study authors concluded.
Even though mice have many physiological similarities with humans, they are different species, thus what happens on mice might not play out the same way on humans. However, this study was conducted on mice, not humans.
Additionally, studying the potential benefits of these compounds in females and their effects when administered at different life stages would be valuable. Future research should investigate whether these findings can be replicated in humans and explore the precise mechanisms through which coffee polyphenols exert their protective effects.
J. Geertsema, M. Kratochvil, R. González-Domínguez, S. Lefèvre-Arbogast, D.Y. Low, A. Du Preez, H. Lee, M. Urpi-Sarda, A. Sánchez-Pla, L. Aigner, C. Samieri, C. Andres-Lacueva, C. Manach, S. Thuret et al., “Coffee polyphenols ameliorate early-life stress-induced cognitive deficits in male mice.”
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