COULD YOU EVER FIND A SINGLE CHILD WITH CHINESE RESTAURANT SYNDROME?

Chinese restaurant syndrome (CRS), a known hypersensitivity reaction to MSG contained food, does not or very rarely affect children. Although it was a known fact, the underlying cause remained a mystery.

" In contrast to mature neurons, immature neurons are very resistant to MSG damage. For example, incubation of immature neurons with 30 µM MSG, a concentration sufficient to induce substantial injury of mature neurons, did not induce clear injury of immature neurons. This finding might explain why young children, whose brain neurons are not fully mature, do not experience headaches after MSG intake." Jeniffer, a senior scientist and her colleagues (2009) say. Their results are summarized as follows.

Figure 1

Dose-dependent injury of mature neurons by MSG (3 - 300 µM). At day 14, cultured mouse cortical neurons in 24 wells were treated with different concentrations of MSG for 12h. 50 µl sample of culture medium was withdrawn from each well for LDH measurement. Cells in each well were then lysed with 0.5% Triton X-100. This treatment gives total LDH. Percentage of cell death is calculated by dividing the LDH value by the total value in each well. n = 8, *p<0.05, **p<0.01 compared to control.