RESEARCH ARTICLE Assessment of the Concentrations of Various Advanced Glycation End-Products in Beverages and Foods That Are Commonly Consumed in Japan

Dietary consumption has recently been identified as a major environmental source of pro-in-flammatory advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) in humans. It is disputed whether die-tary AGEs represent a risk to human health. Nε-(carboxymethyl)lysine (CML), a representative AGE compound found in food, has been suggested to make a significant contribution to circulating CML levels. However, recent studies have found that the dietary intake of AGEs is not associated with plasma CML concentrations. We have shown that the serum levels of glyceraldehyde-derived AGEs (Glycer-AGEs), but not hemoglobin A1c, glu-cose-derived AGEs (Glu-AGEs), or CML, could be used as biomarkers for predicting the progression of atherosclerosis and future cardiovascular events. We also detected the pro-duction/accumulation of Glycer-AGEs in normal rats administered Glu-AGE-rich beverages. Therefore, we assessed the concentrations of various AGEs in a total of 1,650 beverages and foods that are commonly consumed in Japan. The concentrations of four kinds of AGEs (Glu-AGEs, fructose-derived AGEs (Fru-AGEs), CML, and Glycer-AGEs) were measured with competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays involving immunoaffinity-purifie