Abstract
Gamma tocopherol (gT) exhibits beneficial cardiovascular effects partly due to its anti-inflammatory activity. Important sources of gT are vegetable oils. However, little is known to what extent gT can be transferred into marine animal species such as Atlantic salmon by feeding. Therefore, in this study we have investigated the transfer of dietary gT into salmon. To this end, fish were fed a diet supplemented with 170 ppm gT for 16 weeks whereby alpha tocopherol levels were adjusted to 190 ppm in this and the control diet. Feeding gT-rich diets resulted in a three-fold increase in gT concentrations in the liver and fillet compared to non-gT-supplemented controls. Tissue alpha tocopherol levels were not decreased indicating no antagonistic interaction between gamma- and alpha tocopherol in salmon. The concentration of total omega 3 fatty acids slightly increased in response to dietary gT. Furthermore, dietary gT significantly decreased malondialdehyde in the fillet, determined as a biomarker of lipid peroxidation. In the liver of gT fed salmon we observed an overall down-regulation of genes involved in lipid homeostasis. Additionally, gT improved the antioxidant capacity by up-regulating Gpx4a gene expression in the pyloric caeca. We suggest that Atlantic salmon may provide a marine functional source capable of enriching gT for human consumption.
Highlights
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of mortality in the Western world
In this study we have aimed to investigate if dietary Gamma tocopherol (gT) affects tocopherol levels, antioxidant status and fatty acid composition of Atlantic salmon as an important source of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and as a potential functional source of gT for human nutrition
Using a validated HPLC method [17] to measure MDA, we found that MDA
Summary
There is evidence that the consumption of oily fish may significantly decrease cardiovascular disease risk in humans [1] Fish, such as Atlantic salmon, is an important source of long chain omega 3 fatty acids including eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA; C20:5n-3) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA; C22:6n-3) which may exhibit beneficial cardiovascular effects [2,3,4]. Due to their double bonds, both EPA and DHA are prone to lipid peroxidation. In addition to its antioxidant function, important gene-regulatory properties of Vitamin E have been described [7,8]
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