The research team used yeast cells – those used in wine and beer production – to examine avocado oil's properties.
"The reason why we have chosen yeast," explains Cortes-Rojo, "is that (a) this microorganism is easier to study than other biological models due to its relative simplicity and (b) because studies our group published in 2009 and 2011 found that yeast mitochondria are very resistant to free radicals due to the sort of fat that forms its envelope, which is highly resistant to oxidation. The same kind of fat can be found in avocado oil; but, in addition, avocados also contain some plant pigments that inhibit oxidation. That is why we decided to test whether these avocado properties could increase even more the yeast's resistance to mitochondrial oxidation."
The results of this research, he says, show that avocado oil allowed the yeast cells to survive exposure to high concentrations of iron, which produces a huge amount of free radicals, "even to higher levels to those found in some human diseases."
He continues: "These results could be attributed to the fact that avocado oil caused accelerated respiration in mitochondria, which indicate that the use of nutrients for producing energy for cell functions remains effective even in cells attacked by free radicals and that mitochondria itself could produce little amounts of damaging free radicals."
Cortes-Rojo emphasized that these findings reinforce the good reputation the avocado has when it comes to health maintenance. He points to pioneering research by Mario Alvizouri-Munoz, a doctor at the Morelia General Hospital, who demonstrated that avocado lowers the blood
|SOURCE American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology|
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