Wine Flavonoids Protect against Atherosclerosis

[Guest guest]

Wine Flavonoids Protect against Atherosclerosis

JoAnn Guest

Jan 26, 2007 08:41 PST

--------------------------------

Wine Flavonoids Protect against Atherosclerosis

MICHAEL AVIRAM and BIANCA FUHRMAN

http://www.annalsnyas.org/cgi/content/abstract/957/1/146

 

The Lipid Research Laboratory, Technion Faculty of Medicine, The

Rappaport Family Institute for Research in the Medical Sciences and

Rambam Medical Center, Haifa, Israel

 

Address for correspondence: Prof. Michael Aviram, D.Sc., The Lipid

Research Laboratory, Rambam Medical Center, Haifa, Israel, 31096.

Voice: 972-4-8542970; fax: 972-4-8542130.

avi-.

Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 957: 146-161 (2002).

 

 

We have previously shown that consumption of red wine, but not of

white wine, by healthy volunteers, resulted in the enrichment of

their plasma LDL with flavonoid antioxidants such as quercetin, the

potent free radicals scavenger flavanol, which binds to the LDL via

a glycosidic ether bond. This phenomenon was associated with a

significant three-fold reduction in copper ion-induced LDL

oxidation. The ineffectiveness of flavonoid-poor white wine could be

overcome by grape's skin contact for 18 hours in the presence of

alcohol, which extracts grape's skin flavonoids.

 

Recently, we

observed that the high antioxidant potency of Israeli red wine could

be related to an increased content of flavonols, which are very

potent antioxidants and their biosynthesis is stimulated by sunlight

exposure. To find out the effect (and mechanisms) of red wine

consumption on atherosclerosis, we used the apo E deficient (E0)

mice. In these mice, red wine consumption for two months resulted in

a 40% decrement in basal LDL oxidation, a similar decrement in LDL

oxidizability and aggregation, a 35% reduction in lesion size, and a

marked attenuation in the number and morphology of lesion's

macrophage foam cells.

 

Red wine consumption resulted in accumulation

of flavonoids in the mouse macrophages and these cells oxidized LDL

and took up LDL about 40% less than macrophages from placebo-treated

mice. Finally, the activity of serum paraoxonase (which can

hydrolyze specific lipid peroxides in oxidized LDL and in

atherosclerotic lesions) was significantly increased following

consumption of red wine by E0 mice. Red wine consumption thus acts

against the accumulation of oxidized LDL in lesions as a first line

of defense (by a direct inhibition of LDL oxidation), and as a

second line of defense (by paraoxonase elevation and removal of

atherogenic lesion's and lipoprotein's oxidized lipids).

_________________

JoAnn Guest

mrsjo-

www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Genes