ANTI-INFLAMMATORY HEALTH PROPERTIES OF BEVERAGES FUNCTIONALISED WITH GRAPE POMACE ISOLATED PEELS

Grapes are one of the largest fruit crops in the world and almost the 80% of the production is used for winemaking. The use of grape by-products has attracted increasing attention for their potential health benefits for their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-atherosclerotic properties (1). These biological properties are believed to be due to polyphenols and dietary fibres still contained in the grape pomace after grape fermentation. Polyphenols are the most interesting biomolecules for their biological properties (2, 3). Previous studies have shown that red grape polyphenols counteracted the atherosclerotic process by inhibiting the recruitment and adhesion of circulating monocytes to endothelial cells through reduced expression of endothelial adhesion molecules (4, 5). With the aim of investigating the vasculo-protective properties of grape pomace functional beverages, we evaluated their effect on endothelial dysfunction by assessing endothelium-monocyte adhesion, and the expression of endothelial inflammatory mediators. Our results highlight the ability of lyophilised functional beverages to reduce the endothelial expression of the adhesion molecules VCAM-1 and ICAM-1, and the adhesion of monocytes to the inflamed endothelium, in a concentration-dependent manner. Moreover, freeze-dried functional beverages were able to modulate NF-?B activation in response to inflammatory stimuli in endothelial cells, providing an explanation for their anti-inflammatory and vascular-protective effects.