Phytoestrogen Concentrations in Human Urine as Biomarkers for Dietary Phytoestrogen Intake in Mexican Women

Abstract

There has been substantial interest in phytoestrogens, because of their potential effect in reducing cancer and heart disease risk. Measuring concentrations of phytoestrogens in urine is an alternative method for conducting epidemiological studies. Our objective was to evaluate the urinary excretion of phytoestrogens as biomarkers for dietary phytoestrogen intake in Mexican women. Participants were 100 healthy women from 25 to 80 years of age. A food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) and a 24 h recall were used to estimate habitual and recent intakes of isoflavones, lignans, flavonols, coumestrol, resveratrol, naringenin, and luteolin. Urinary concentrations were measured by liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled to mass spectrometry (MS) using the electrospray ionization interface (ESI) and diode array detector (DAD) (HPLC-DAD-ESI-MS). Spearman correlation coefficients were used to evaluate associations between dietary intake and urine concentrations. The habitual consumption (FFQ) of total phytoestrogens was 37.56 mg/day. In urine, the higher compounds were naringenin (60.1 µg/L) and enterolactone (41.7 µg/L). Recent intakes (24 h recall) of isoflavones (r = 0.460, p < 0.001), lignans (r = 0.550, p < 0.0001), flavonoids (r = 0.240, p < 0.05), and total phytoestrogens (r = 0.410, p < 0.001) were correlated to their urinary levels. Total phytoestrogen intakes estimated by the FFQ showed higher correlations to urinary levels (r = 0.730, p < 0.0001). Urinary phytoestrogens may be useful as biomarkers of phytoestrogen intake, and as a tool for evaluating the relationship of intake and disease risk in Mexican women.

Gender Differences in Phytoestrogens and the Relationship with Speed of Processing in Older Adults: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of NHANES, 1999–2002

“…Several studies have demonstrated that urinary phytoestrogens have also predicted one’s habitual intake of phytoestrogens and remain relatively stable in adolescents. These findings are from a longitudinal study involving urinary phytoestrogens and dietary intake over many years [50,78,79,80,81]. On the basis of these results, further studies should be pursued in an attempt to untangle phytoestrogen differences, given that each phytoestrogen may influence cognition differently.…”

“…Quality control measures, limits of detection, and normal ranges for phytoestrogens for this study are explained elsewhere [45,46,47]. Prior studies have indicated that urinary phytoestrogens are reliable biomarkers for representing daily intake and habitual intake of isoflavones and lignans [48,49,50,51].…”

Effects of Polyphenol-Rich Foods on Human Health

“…This Special Issue “Effects of Polyphenol-Rich Foods on Human Health” comprises 64 peer-reviewed papers, including 43 original research papers [ 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 ], one case-report [ 51 ] and 20 literature reviews [ 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 ...…”

“…Several contributions investigated polyphenol metabolism and transformation into bioavailable molecules and underlined the importance of the clarification of the metabolic fate of polyphenols and their bioavailability in order to fully understand the molecular forms responsible for the preventive actions of polyphenols [ 13 , 15 , 17 , 26 , 35 , 36 , 43 ].…”

Validation of a Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) for Assessing Dietary Lignans Intake in Hong Kong Chinese Women with Early-Stage Breast Cancer

“…Biomarkers of dietary intake can be used as reference instruments in validation studies, because biomarkers of diet do not rely on reporting by subjects and the measurement errors can generally be assumed to be uncorrelated with those self-reported dietary assessment methods such as FFQ and 24-h DR [51]. In a previous study that investigated the relationship between dietary intake and urinary phytoestrogen among Mexican women, Chávez-Suárez et al [52] [25, 29-31, 33, 34, 53-56]. Moreover, the lignans value of some food groups/items in the LFFQ were adopted by applying values from similar foods due to the lack of actual lignans content in published databases; these could impact on the evaluation of the LFFQ.…”