Pasta enriched with barley flour protects the heart from heart attack and creates artificial coronaries

Beta-glucan is a fiber found in barley flour and would be particularly effective in keeping the heart healthy. Hence the experimentation with a special pasta made from durum wheat semolina and barley flour. The special pasta has been successfully tested on mice. called functional has been shown to stimulate the formation of natural 'by-passes', which can continue to nourish the heart tissue even when it is'' suffocated 'by the occlusion of a coronary artery. This is indicated by the results published in Scientific Reports by the Institute of Life Sciences of the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa. "Up to now, to increase the number of collateral branches of the coronary arteries, multiple invasive strategies have been tested, using gene therapy and stem cell transplantation", explains the research manager Vincenzo Lionetti, coordinator of the Unit of Translational Critical Medicine (TrancriLab) of the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies. “This - underlines the expert - is the first time that the formation of natural by-passes has been favored through a functional food, such as pasta with barley beta-glucan”. The mouse study shows that regular intake of functional paste stimulates the growth of new collateral branches of the coronary arteries in healthy hearts. It does this by increasing the expression of two molecules: the vascular growth factor Vegf, which favors the formation of new blood vessels, and parchina, a protein that protects the cells that line the lumen of the coronary arteries from the effects of ischemia. Research results also indicate that daily intake of barley beta-glucan pasta does not induce insulin resistance and does not increase body weight.