Sunday, April 06, 2008
Research
By David Liu - foodconsumer.org
Jan 4, 2007 - 7:50:47 AM
Dietary supplementation of prebiotics such as inulin and oligofructose reduced the buildup of fatty plague on the arteries, which can result in atherosclerosis and heart disease, according to a new study.
The study found that levels of tryacylglycerol were significantly lower in mice fed a diet with long chain inulin or an oligofructose-enriched inulin compared to those fed a diet without prebiotics added. Additionally, atherosclerotic plague was reduced by 30 percent in the study groups. Atherosclerosis or hardening of the arteries is a major cause for cardiovascular disease, which claims almost 50 percent of deaths in Europe. Heart disease is the number one killer in the United States.
For the study, which appears in the British Journal of Nutrition, Marie-Hélène Rault-Nania and colleagues from the Auvergne Human Nutrition Research Centre (UMR1019, INRA) and the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, Besancon tested inulin and oligofructose in male apolipoprotein-E-deficient mice to examine their effects on the buildup of fatty plague. The mice were prone to atherosclerosis as apolipoprotein-E is needed to break down triglyceride-rich lipoprotein constituents and prevent the buildup of fatty plague on artery wall.The mice were used so that it would be easier for researchers to study fatty plague.
In the study, Rault-Nania and her colleagues randomly assigned 32 mice to one of four diets: a semi-purified sucrose-based diet as control, or a diet with either long-chain inulin, or oligofructose, or an oligofructose-enriched inulin added at the level of 10 g/100g. The researchers found that the mice on the diet with either long-chain inulin or an oligofructose-enriched inulin had 35 and 25 percent reduced atherosclerotic plaques respectively after 16-week supplementation, compared to the control group.
In addition, the long-chain inulin group had significantly lower plasma cholesterol concentrations, and those mice on a diet with any of three inulin-type fructans had significantly lower triacylglycerol concentrations than the control group. "Both the long-chain inulin and an oligofructose-enriched inulin significantly lowered hepatic cholesterol concentrations compared with the control diet. Hepatic TAG concentrations were significantly lower in all three groups fed the fructan-supplemented diets v. the control group," the researchers wrote.
They concluded that “the results of the present study suggest that inhibition of atherosclerotic plaque formation is more potent in the presence of long-chain inulin, either alone or in combination with oligofructose (an oligofructose-enriched inulin), and that this probably is related to changes in lipid metabolism.”
Source: British Journal of Nutrition 2006 Nov;96 (5):840-4 “Inulin attenuates atherosclerosis in apolipoprotein E-deficient mice”Authors: M-H. Rault-Nania, E. Gueux, C. Demougeot, C. Demigné, E. Rock, A. Mazur