|
|
||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
-Tocopherol protects against diet induced atherosclerosis in New Zealand white rabbits


* Departments of Pathology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC
Biochemistry, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC
2 To whom correspondence should be addressed. e-mail: mthomas{at}wfubmc.edu
In this study, we asked the question "does
-tocopherol supplementation prevent an increase in total plasma cholesterol (TPC) concentration and reduce the deposition of cholesterol in arterial plaques of rabbits fed atherogenic diets?" Isocaloric diets containing 0.1% cholesterol to induce atherosclerosis were enriched in one of three fats: saturated fats (SAT), monounsaturated fats (MONO), or n-6 polyunsaturated fats (POLY). Half of each of the three diets were supplemented with 2,500 IU
-tocopherol/kg-diet. Unsupplemented diets contained 25 IU
-tocopherol/kg-diet. Rabbits supplemented with
-tocopherol had plasma
-tocopherol concentrations 10-fold higher and an average TPC concentration 31% lower, P = 0.017, than rabbits fed unsupplemented diets. Among the three fat-fed groups, the difference was greatest for the POLY fat fed group (54%, P = 0.041). POLY fat-fed rabbits without
-tocopherol supplementation had plasma HDL cholesterol concentrations that were less than half that of rabbits fed other fats, P
0.0001. In general, differences in mean esterified artery cholesterol concentrations among the three fat-fed groups, with and without
-tocopherol supplementation, paralleled differences in TPC concentration among the groups.
This study suggests that for rabbits fed high pharmacological doses of
-tocopherol, atherosclerosis can be diminished in situations where the plasma cholesterol concentrations are also significantly lower.
Abbreviations: BHT, butylated hydroxytoluene; DTPA, diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid; MONO, diet group fed a diet enriched with monounsaturated fats; POLY, diet group fed a diet enriched with polyunsaturated fats; SAT, diet group fed a diet enriched with saturated fats
Supplementary key words
-tocopherol fatty acid polyunsaturated fatty acid saturated fatty acid monounsaturated fatty acid high density lipoprotein lipoprotein
![]()
CiteULike
Complore
Connotea
Del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
Technorati What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
A. Leichtle, D. Teupser, and J. Thiery Alpha-Tocopherol Distribution in Lipoproteins and Anti-Inflammatory Effects Differ between CHD-Patients and Healthy Subjects. J. Am. Coll. Nutr., October 1, 2006; 25(5): 420 - 428. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
K. NESARETNAM, R. AMBRA, K. R. SELVADURAY, A. RADHAKRISHNAN, R. CANALI, and F. VIRGILI Tocotrienol-Rich Fraction from Palm Oil and Gene Expression in Human Breast Cancer Cells Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci., December 1, 2004; 1031(1): 143 - 157. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
| All ASBMB Journals | Journal of Biological Chemistry |
| Molecular and Cellular Proteomics | ASBMB Today |