Lung disease such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and bronchial asthma (BA) are the most common inflammatory lung disease in Japan. As the lungs are directly connected to an oxygen-rich environment, it is susceptible to be chronically and insidiously damaged through the imbalance between the toxicity of oxidants and the protective activities of several antioxidant defense systems. Antioxidant nutrients such as vitamin C, vitamin E and carotenoids have been well-recognized to be important component of antioxidant defense systems. However, few studies to date have investigated the antioxidant nutrients in plasma from patients with pulmonary disease in Japan. Therefore, we determined the plasma antioxidant levels in Japanese patients with COPD, asthma-COPD overlap syndrome (ACOS), BA or healthy elderly controls by using HPLC. As the result, plasma lycopene and total carotenoid levels were significantly lower in COPD subjects than those in healthy elderly people. In another research, the antioxidant state was analyzed in both healthy subjects and BA patients. The results demonstrated that the serum lycopene level was significantly lower in BA patients than in healthy subjects. Accordingly, a preliminary intervention study was conducted in patients with BA who continued to intake tomato juice containing lycopene every day for 12 month to evaluate its effects on asthmatic symptoms. As the result, most patients had a positive impression on daily tomato juice intake since asthma patients realized the improvements of quality of life and asthmatic symptoms. No obvious adverse effect was observed throughout the study. Although the precise mechanisms and the active ingredients responsible for these results must be elucidated in detail, the daily intake of tomato could be a new candidate of controller for pulmonary disease.

Management of lung disease by tomato, lycopene

256th National Meeting (2018)

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