Impact of the New Zealand Pine Bark Extract (Enzogenol®) on Sucrose Metabolism and Glycaemic Responses in Healthy Adults – A Randomised, Placebo-Controlled, Crossover Trial

Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine the effects of almond intake on iron status in aging mice.We hypothesized that aging mice fed a diet supplemented with almonds will have improved iron status biomarkers and red blood cell (RBC) antioxidant activity compared to control mice.Methods: Forty-eight male and female C57BL/6 mice (18 months old) were randomized to receive a low fat (15% kcal from fat) diet with or without 15% calories from almond meal for 12 or 24 weeks (four groups, n12/group).Mice were kept in cages of three mice per cage under standard pathogen-free conditions on a 12:12 light dark cycle with food and water ad libitum.Body weights were recorded weekly and dietary intake was recorded three times per week.Mice were euthanized after their respective intervention periods and blood, liver, and spleen samples were collected.Antioxidant markers (RBC alphatocopherol concentrations and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity), and iron status markers (complete blood count analysis and plasma, liver, and spleen iron concentrations) were measured for each mouse.Results: Due to poor survival rate in the control group, the study ended at 21 weeks.Seven mice from the control group died or were euthanized early compared to three mice in the almond group.Based on our preliminary data, almond intake resulted in lower odds of anemia (OR 0.20, p0.046) and red blood cell distribution width (RDWsd; -3.9, p 0.017), higher RBC count ( 0.82, p0.026) and a weakly significant increase in RBC SOD activity ( 22.0, p0.066) after adjusting for sex and length of intervention (12 vs 21 weeks) in regression analysis.There was no effect of almond intake on spleen and liver iron and RBC alpha-tocopherol concentration.Mice with higher RBC SOD activity were less likely to develop anemia (OR 0.96, p 0.016) or die early (OR 0.88, p0.028).Conclusions: Diet supplementation with almond meal in aging mice improved selected markers of iron status and reduced anemia risk.