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Sanetaka Shirahata, Takeki Hamasaki, Kiichiro Teruya, Newly found activities of electrochemically reduced water, The 27th Annual Meeting of Japanese Association for Animal Cell Technology, 2014.11, Electrochemically reduced water (ERW) produced near the cathode by the electrolysis of water contains hydrogen molecules and small amounts of mineral nanoparticles including platinum nanoparticles (Pt NPs), both of which have drawn much attention as newly recognized antioxidative cellular redox regulation factors. We are currently collaborating with the Karolinska Institutet and examining the suppressive effect of hydrogen molecules dissolved in ERW on aging associated neuro-inflammation. Here we report our recent knowledge about ERW, hydrogen molecules, hydrogen atoms and mineral nanoparticles. We have demonstrated that ERW exhibited antitumor, antidiabetic and antineuronal cell death effects when tested with cultured cells and animal disease models. We have been devoting our effort searching for the substances responsible for these efficacies. At present, we are focusing on Pt Nps or dissolved hydrogen. Although we have reported previously that Pt Nps possess intracellular antioxidative effects, we now report our recent findings that an intracellular antioxidative effect was observed even with an extremely low concentration of Pt Nps. Researches for the molecular hydrogen dissolved in ERW are highly active and the reports in this area exceed more than 200 articles. However, the mechanisms for antioxidative activity in the cells have not been elucidated yet. We first examined to clarify the mechanism involving cancer cell death using one of the intracellular redox-regulatory systems, Nrf2/ARE (nuclear erythroid 2-related factor 2/ antioxidant response element) pathway. The results showed that the molecular hydrogen does not exert its antioxidative effect through common Nrf2 activation pathway. The molecular hydrogen under the condition of dissolved hydrogen and Pt Nps coexistence, it is adsorbed to Pt Nps which triggers dissociation or weakening of the covalent bonds resulting in the acquisition of its reactivity similar to hydrogen radical we called active hydrogen in the aqueous environment. We found that such active hydrogen induces a strong cancer cell death while no such effect was detected in normal PBMC cells. We are speculating that this active hydrogen in ERW is the potential substance conferring antitumor effect. Our current effort is to find an alternative possibility for new anticancer therapy based on the present findings. References 1. T. Omasa, K. Nishijima, Research for Cell Biology. 233: 652 (2014).
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Takeki Hamasaki, Kiichiro Teruya, Shigeru Kabayama, What is functional water? Its recent findings, AFELiSA (International Symposium on Agricultural, Food, Environmental and Life Sciences in Asia) 2015, 2015.11, In the field of food science and technology, water is an important ingredient influencing taste, rheology and preservation of foods. Research on functional foods is currently popular; however, it is not yet well understood that drinking water also has physiological functions, and that there are some health-beneficial effects. Many kinds of drinking waters said to be beneficial for health are commercialized in Japan. Those commercialized waters were often sold after activated by various methods including electrolysis, treatment with a magnetic field, light irradiation, ultrasonication, bubbling with gases, strong water flow and collision, and treatment with some types of minerals or rocks. However, most of such waters also introduced misunderstandings mainly due to lack of solid scientific evidences. Therefore, the functional water association of Japan was founded in 2002 for the purpose of defining functional water and verifying their efficacy and effectiveness by means of the scientific methods. Functional water is defined by the association as the water which is scientifically verified its production methods and functions selected from waters that have been produced by artificial methods capable of reproducibly giving rise to useful functions. At present, several functional waters are being examined and approved as alkaline ion water, acidic water, ozone water, supercritical water. Verification is in progress for fine bubble water, ocean deep water, hydrogen dissolved water, while magnetic treated water, radiation treated water, ultrasonic treated water and ceramic treated water seem not to have enough scientific proofs at this moment. Among functional waters, electrolyzed water has been investigated extensively. Alkali ion water, called electrochemically reduced water is produced near a cathode and electrochemically oxidized water is produced near an anode. Oxidized water is also termed electrolyzed acidic water and is functional water exhibiting a sterilizing action, mainly due to hypochlorous acid, chlorine gas, and ozone. electrochemically reduced water are expected to have preventive and positive effects on oxidative stress-related diseases such as diabetes, cancer, arteriosclerosis, neurodegenerative diseases, and side effects of hemodialysis. It has been suggested that the active agents in reduced water are hydrogen (atoms and molecules), mineral nanoparticles, and mineral nanoparticle hydrides. In the presentation, additional efficacies of functional water based on the recent findings will be introduced and discuss about future possibilities of these waters.. |