Antiatherogenic and Antioxidant Effects of Valineon Coronary Arteries of Hypercholesterolemic Animals

Introduction & The decrease of peroxidantion of lipoproteins as a key event in the development of atherosclerosis by increasing plasma antioxidant capacity might be an effective approach in preventing such diseases. It has been shown that some amino acids and polyamines have antioxidant activity. In this study antioxidant and antiatherogenic effects of valine in hypercholesterolemic rabbits have been investigated. fifteen male white rabbits were divided into three groups including: normal control, hypercholesterolemic control and hypercholesterolemic treated with L-valine. Animals were fed with special diets for five weeks and then plasma total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), conjugated diens (CDs), malondialdehyde (MDA) and antioxidant capacity (AC) were measured. Coronary arteries were obtained in order to measure fatty streaks formation by histological studies. No significant difference was observed in plasma TC, LDL-C and CDs levels between valine treated and hypercholesterolemic control groups. However the levels of TG, HDL-C and MDA in valine-treated group showed a significant differences in comparison with hypercholesterolemic control group (p<0.05). Comparison of serum antioxidant capacity in valine treated group showed significant increase comparing to hypercholesterolemic control group. The mean size of produced fatty streaks also showed significant reduction in valine-treated group in comparison with hypercholesterolemic control group (p<0.05). The results showed that valine can prevent the formation of fatty streaks in hypercholesterolemic rabbits by increasing of serum antioxidant capacity and decreasing the level of lipid peroxidation.