UK-SRP Hosts Nutrition and Chemical Toxicity Workshop

(November 2005) -- The University of Kentucky SRP held the workshop Nutrition and Superfund Chemical Toxicity on November 18, 2005. The workshop was organized under the umbrella of the University of Kentucky SRP Research Translation Core.

Experts in the fields of nutritional sciences, medicine and environmental toxicology were invited to the University of Kentucky to present exciting evidence on the paradigm that nutrition or diets can modulate toxicological insults and associated disease states. As Bernhard Hennig (Director of the University of Kentucky SRP) stated, "Nutrition may be the most sensible means to develop intervention and prevention strategies of diseases associated with many environmental toxic insults."

The following speakers presented their research findings:

	Ronald J. Jandacek, University of Cincinnati, Enterohepatic circulation of organochlorine compounds: a site for nutritional intervention
	Sung Koo, University of Connecticut, Flavonoids (green tea catechins) modulate absorption of lipids and lipid-soluble compounds
	Craig McClain, Ohio State University, Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH): toxic interaction and nutrition intervention
	Harold Seifried, National Cancer Institute, NIH, Oxidative stress and antioxidants: a link to disease promotion and prevention
	Adrienne S. Ettinger, Harvard School of Public Health, Dietary calcium supplementation lowers blood lead levels during pregnancy and lactation
	Allen Silverstone, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Targeting AhR activation: the good, the bad, and the ugly
	Bruce Watkins, Purdue University, Food and inflammation

Following the presentations, speakers met with UK-SRP faculty for an extended discussion session. At this session, consensus was gained that there is a great need to further explore the nutritional paradigm in environmental toxicology to improve our understanding of the relationship between nutrition or diet practices, exposure to environmental toxins and the pathology of associated chronic diseases.

Sponsors: This workshop was supported in part by funds from NIEHS/NIH (UK SBRP), UK Office of Executive Vice President for Research, College of Agriculture Office of the Associate Dean for Research, Department of Animal & Food Sciences, UK Department of Public Health, and the Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute.