Creation of Resveratrol-Enriched Rice for the Treatment of Metabolic Syndrome and Related Diseases

<div><p>Resveratrol has been clinically shown to possess a number of human health benefits. As a result, many attempts have been made to engineer resveratrol production in major cereal grains but have been largely unsuccessful. In this study, we report the creation of a transgenic rice plant that accumulates 1.9 µg resveratrol/g in its grain, surpassing the previously reported anti-metabolic syndrome activity of resveratrol through a synergistic interaction between the transgenic resveratrol and the endogenous properties of the rice. Consumption of our transgenic resveratrol-enriched rice significantly improved all aspects of metabolic syndrome and related diseases in animals fed a high-fat diet. Compared with the control animals, the resveratrol-enriched rice reduced body weight, blood glucose, triglycerides, total cholesterol, and LDL-cholesterol by 24.7%, 22%, 37.4%, 27%, and 59.6%, respectively. The resveratrol-enriched rice from our study may thus provide a safe and convenient means of preventing metabolic syndrome and related diseases without major lifestyle changes or the need for daily medications. These results also suggest that future transgenic plants could be improved if the synergistic interactions of the transgene with endogenous traits of the plant are considered in the experimental design.</p> </div

Molecular characterization of transgenic rice lines expressing <i>AhSTS1</i>.

<p>(A) Southern blot analysis. Genomic DNA in lanes P and RS1 to RS22 were digested with <i>Bam</i>HI (specific to the T-DNA region). The arrow indicates the fragment (1.2 kb) hybridized with the <i>AhSTS1</i> cDNA probe. P, pSB2220 vector; N, non-transgenic wild-type Dongjin; lanes RS1 - RS22, representative transgenic Dongjin lines out of 129 T₁ samples. (B) RT-PCR analysis. Total RNA from leaf samples of the same lines as in (A) was analyzed. <i>OsUBQ5</i> was included as a PCR control.</p

The effects of the resveratrol-enriched rice on blood lipid and glucose levels.

<p>The values represent the means ± SEM (n = 16). CTL, mice fed a HFD (D12451); Resv, mice fed a HFD supplemented with resveratrol; DJ, mice fed a HFD in which the corn starch and sucrose were replaced with Dongjin rice; RS18-half, mice fed a HFD in which half of the corn starch and sucrose were replaced with the resveratrol-enriched rice; RS18, mice fed a HFD in which the corn starch and sucrose were replaced with the resveratrol-enriched rice. Values in a column with a superscripted letter indicate statistical significance as analyzed by an unpaired Student’s t-test;</p>a<p>p<0.05 compared with CTL;</p>b<p>p<0.01 compared with CTL;</p>c<p>p<0.05 compared with DJ;</p>d<p>p<0.01 compared with DJ.</p

Measurement of resveratrol-specific glucosyltransferase activity in rice leaves and grains.

<p>WT, wild-type Dongjin rice; RS18, <i>AhSTS1</i> transgenic Dongjin rice line. Remarkably high resveratrol-specific glucosyltransferase activity was found only in the leaves of the transgenic rice line RS18.</p