Garlic & Spleen Red Blood Cell Turnover

Link: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0015358

Excerpt:

Garlic (Allium sativum) has been valued in many cultures both for its health
effects and as a culinary flavor enhancer. Garlic’s chemical complexity is
widely thought to be the source of its many health benefits, which include,
but are not limited to, anti-platelet, procirculatory, anti-inflammatory,
anti-apoptotic, neuro-protective, and anti-cancer effects. While a growing
body of scientific evidence strongly upholds the herb’s broad and potent
capacity to influence health, the common mechanisms underlying these diverse
effects remain disjointed and relatively poorly understood. We adopted a
phenotype-driven approach to investigate the effects of garlic in a mouse
model. We examined RBC indices and morphologies, spleen histochemistry, RBC
half-lives and gene expression profiles, followed up by qPCR and immunoblot
validation. The RBCs of garlic-fed mice register shorter half-lives than the
control. But they have normal blood chemistry and RBC indices. Their spleens
manifest increased heme oxygenase 1, higher levels of iron and bilirubin,
and presumably higher CO, a pleiotropic gasotransmitter. Heat shock genes
and those critical for erythropoiesis are elevated in spleens but not in
bone marrow. The garlic-fed mice have lower plasma erythropoietin than the
controls, however. Chronic exposure to CO of mice on garlic-free diet was
sufficient to cause increased RBC indices but again with a lower plasma
erythropoietin level than air-treated controls. Furthermore, dietary garlic
supplementation and CO treatment showed additive effects on reducing plasma
erythropoietin levels in mice. Thus, garlic consumption not only causes
increased energy demand from the faster RBC turnover but also increases the
production of CO, which in turn stimulates splenic erythropoiesis by an
erythropoietin-independent mechanism, thus completing the sequence of
feedback regulation for RBC metabolism. Being a pleiotropic gasotransmitter,
CO may be a second messenger for garlic’s other physiological effects.