coniferyl-alcohol and caffeic-acid

Aging deteriorates vascular functions such as vascular reactivity and stiffness. Thus far, various reports suggest that bioactive compounds can improve vascular functions. However, few age-related studies of natural bioactive compounds are available. The present study attempted to evaluate age-related vasorelaxation of bioactive cinnamic acids, caffeic acid, and ferulic acid using aged rat thoracic aorta. Vasorelaxation was evaluated in thoracic aorta from both 8, 18, and 40 weeks old Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKY) and spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) respectively. The result indicated that caffeic acid possessed the vasorelaxation regardless of aging in WKY and SHR. Moreover, the vasorelaxation of ferulic acid enhanced with aging in SHR. The vasorelaxation behavior was acted in an endothelium-independent manner. To access structure importance of enhanced vasorelaxation, analogues of ferulic acid were tested. In 40 weeks old SHR, 3,4-dimethoxycinnamic acid and coniferyl alcohol exhibited equivalent vasorelaxation activity with ferulic acid, providing the structural importance of methoxy-modified 3-position on the phenyl ring and 2-propenoic moiety. These results firstly demonstrated that enhanced vasorelaxation of ferulic acid with aging and 3,4-dimethoxycinnamic acid and coniferyl alcohol, along with ferulic acid, might exhibit the therapeutic potential of vasoactive power with aging.

Topics: Aging; Animals; Aorta, Thoracic; Caffeic Acids; Cinnamates; Coumaric Acids; Endothelium, Vascular; Male; Phenols; Rats; Rats, Inbred SHR; Rats, Inbred WKY; Vasodilation

Strain NL15-2K was isolated from soil by screening for bacteria capable of catabolizing lignin-related aromatic acids. This isolate was identified as a Streptomyces sp. on the basis of morphology and an analysis of its 16S rRNA gene sequence. NL15-2K utilized caffeic acid, coniferyl alcohol, ferulic acid, isovanillic acid, protocatechuic acid, vanillic acid, vanillin, and veratric acid as sole carbon sources.

Topics: Benzaldehydes; Biodegradation, Environmental; Biotechnology; Caffeic Acids; Carbon; Coumaric Acids; Hydroxybenzoates; Lignin; Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; Models, Chemical; Phenols; Streptomyces; Vanillic Acid

Reactions of barley peroxidase 1 were studied using transient-state and steady-state kinetics at pH 3.96, 25 degrees C, and 0.1 M ionic strength, in both the presence and the absence of 1 mM calcium ion. The rate of compound I formation from barley peroxidase 1 and hydrogen peroxide in the absence of reducing substrate is very slow, with or without calcium. When each of the three reducing substrates ferulic acid, caffeic acid, and coniferyl alcohol is added individually, there is a striking enhancement of the rate of compound I formation by a factor of 10-40 depending on the substrate. These unique rate enhancements can be explained by the effect of tight substrate binding to the native enzyme, and they may be indicative of an activating effect of reducing substrate on barley peroxidase 1 under physiological conditions. All steady-state kinetic results can be explained by an initial tight binding of reducing substrate AH to the barley peroxidase, Peroxidase + AH reversible Peroxidase-AH, and substitution of the peroxidase-AH complex for native enzyme in the standard modified ping-pong mechanism for peroxidase reactions [Dunford, H. B. (1991) in Peroxidases in Chemistry and Biology (Everse, J., Everse, K. E., & Grisham, M. B., Eds.) Vol. II, pp 1-24, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL]. The dissociation constant of barley peroxidase 1 and ferulic acid was 1.4 +/- 0.6 microM as determined by the change in the absorbance at the Soret maximum at the conditions mentioned above.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Topics: Caffeic Acids; Calcium; Coumaric Acids; Hordeum; Hydrogen Peroxide; Kinetics; Mathematics; Models, Theoretical; Peroxidases; Phenols; Plant Proteins; Spectrophotometry; Time Factors