Benefits
Oxidative stress marker in one uncontrolled study
In one uncontrolled study, patients with systemic sclerosis who took 100 mg of ActiVin a day for a month had lower blood levels of malondialdehyde, a marker of oxidative stress. There was no placebo: the comparison group received no treatment at all, the paper never says how many people took part, and a research executive from the company that sold ActiVin co-wrote it. ActiVin has not been tested this way in healthy people.
Blood-vessel markers in a rare disease population
In that same uncontrolled study, blood levels of three adhesion molecules (ICAM-1, VCAM-1 and E-selectin) fell. Those markers had been pushed up by the participants' autoimmune disease in the first place. They are laboratory measurements, not a measure of how blood vessels actually work, and the study says nothing about blood-vessel function in a healthy person.
Cell protection has not been measured in people
This is a laboratory idea rather than a demonstrated result. No study of ActiVin has measured protection of cells or tissues in people; the single published study measured blood markers only, with no symptom, function or health outcome of any kind.
Mechanism of action
Proanthocyanidin antioxidant action
In laboratory work, grape seed OPCs neutralize free radicals and interact with the body's own antioxidant systems. This is the proposed explanation for the blood-marker changes seen in the one ActiVin study, not something that has been shown to protect blood vessels or tissues in people.
Adhesion molecules and the vessel lining
Adhesion molecules are proteins involved in inflammation of the blood-vessel lining. In the one published study, blood levels of these markers went down in patients whose disease had raised them. Because that study had no placebo and no control treatment, it cannot show that ActiVin itself caused the change.
Clinical trials
Uncontrolled one-month study of ActiVin at 100 mg a day in patients with systemic sclerosis, measuring oxidative stress and adhesion molecules in the blood. Patients were split into two groups: one took ActiVin and the other served as a control and received no treatment. There is no mention of randomization or blinding. (Kalin et al. 2002, Free Radical Research)
People with systemic sclerosis (scleroderma), a rare autoimmune connective-tissue disease that damages small blood vessels. The paper never states how many patients took part.
Blood levels of malondialdehyde (an oxidative stress marker) and of the adhesion molecules ICAM-1, VCAM-1 and E-selectin were lower after a month of ActiVin at 100 mg a day. These markers had been raised by the disease itself. All of the results are blood markers: no symptom, function or other health outcome was measured. With no placebo and no control treatment, the change cannot be separated from the passage of time or expectation. One of the authors, Debasis Bagchi, was vice-president of research and development at InterHealth Nutraceuticals, the company that sold ActiVin.