Ørgaard Anne, Jensen Lotte
Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Exp Biol Med (Maywood). 2008 Sep;233(9):1066-80. doi: 10.3181/0712-MR-347. Epub 2008 Jun 5.
Over the last decades, the prevalence of obesity and related diseases has increased rapidly in the Western world. Obesity is a disorder of energy balance and is associated with hyper-insulinemia, insulin resistance, and abnormalities in lipid metabolism, and it is one of the most important risk factors in the development of Type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease, atherosclerosis, and certain cancers. Because of the lower frequency of these diseases in Asian countries, attention has been turned toward the Asian diet, which consists highly of soy and soy-based products. The health benefits associated with soy consumption have been linked to the content of isoflavones, the main class of the phytoestrogens. As a result of their structural similarities to endogenous estrogens, isoflavones elicit weak estrogenic effects by competing with 17beta-estradiol (E2) for binding to the intranuclear estrogen receptors (ERs) and exert estrogenic or antiestrogenic effects in various tissues. The estrogenic activities of soy isoflavones are thought to play an important role in their health-enhancing properties. Additionally, the isoflavones have been proved to exert non-ER-mediated effects through numerous other pathways. Genistein, daidzein, and glycitein are the principal isoflavones in soy. Genistein is the most thoroughly examined of these, because it is the most prevalent isoflavone in soy and the most active of these compounds, because of its higher binding affinity for the ER. Genistein and daidzein can be obtained in high levels in humans under certain nutritional conditions, and epidemiologic and laboratory data suggest that these compounds could have health benefits in human obesity. This review will focus on the latest results of research on isoflavones and their effect on obesity in cell cultures, rodents, and humans.
在过去几十年里，肥胖症及相关疾病在西方世界的患病率迅速上升。肥胖是一种能量平衡紊乱疾病，与高胰岛素血症、胰岛素抵抗以及脂质代谢异常有关，是II型糖尿病、心血管疾病、动脉粥样硬化和某些癌症发展的最重要风险因素之一。由于这些疾病在亚洲国家的发病率较低，人们的注意力转向了以大豆及大豆制品为主的亚洲饮食。与食用大豆相关的健康益处与异黄酮的含量有关，异黄酮是植物雌激素的主要类别。由于其结构与内源性雌激素相似，异黄酮通过与17β-雌二醇（E2）竞争结合细胞核内雌激素受体（ERs）而产生微弱的雌激素效应，并在各种组织中发挥雌激素或抗雌激素作用。大豆异黄酮的雌激素活性被认为在其促进健康的特性中起重要作用。此外，异黄酮已被证明可通过许多其他途径发挥非ER介导的作用。染料木黄酮、大豆苷元和黄豆黄素是大豆中的主要异黄酮。染料木黄酮是其中研究最深入的，因为它是大豆中最普遍的异黄酮，也是这些化合物中活性最高的，因其对ER具有更高的结合亲和力。在某些营养条件下，人体可以大量获取染料木黄酮和大豆苷元，流行病学和实验室数据表明，这些化合物可能对人类肥胖有益。本综述将重点关注异黄酮及其对细胞培养、啮齿动物和人类肥胖影响的最新研究结果。
