Abstract
Hypercholesterolemia is a risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD) and also could contribute to impaired immune response. The National Cholesterol Education Program Expert Panel recommends a therapeutic lifestyle change (TLC) diet to reduce the risk for CHD. We investigated the effects of changing from a high-fat Western diet to a low-fat diet in accordance with a TLC diet on immune functions of older adults with hypercholesterolemia to determine whether improving the lipid profile via dietary intervention would have beneficial effects on immune functions. In a double-blind study, 18 subjects consumed both a Western diet (38% fat) and a TLC diet (28% fat) for 32 days in a randomized order. Measures of cellular immune responses, including delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) response, in vitro lymphocyte proliferation, and interleukin (IL)-2 production, and production of proinflammatory mediators, including tumor necrosis factor-alpha, IL-6, IL-1beta, and prostaglandin E2, were determined. DTH response and lymphocyte proliferative response increased significantly (29% and 27%, respectively) after consumption of a TLC diet. Our results indicate that consumption of a TLC diet enhances T cell-mediated immune functions in older adults with elevated cholesterol level. This might be a clinically important benefit, considering the decline of T cell-mediated immune functions with aging and evidence of impaired immune function associated with hypercholesterolemia.
Highlights
Hypercholesterolemia is a risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD) and could contribute to impaired immune response
Netea et al [3] showed that hyperlipoprotenemia due to the loss of the LDL receptor (LDLR) in LDLR-deficient (LDLRϪ/Ϫ) mice had deleterious effects on the outcome of severe Candida albicans infection, including earlier death and higher outgrowth of C. albicans in the kidneys and liver, compared with wild-type littermates
The study by Ludewig et al [4] using apolipoprotein E-deficient mice or LDLRϪ/Ϫ mice models showed that hypercholesterolemia had a significant suppressive effect on cellular immunity
Summary
Hypercholesterolemia is a risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD) and could contribute to impaired immune response. We investigated the effects of changing from a high-fat Western diet to a low-fat diet in accordance with a TLC diet on immune functions of older adults with hypercholesterolemia to determine whether improving the lipid profile via dietary intervention would have beneficial effects on immune functions. Research from animal, epidemiologic, and genetic disorder studies indicates that elevated LDL cholesterol is a major cause of coronary heart disease (CHD) These studies show that is hypercholesterolemia a main risk factor for the development of atherosclerosis, it can contribute to impaired immune response against infections. We investigated the effects of highfat Western diet and low-fat TLC diet on immune functions of older adults with elevated serum LDL cholesterol levels to determine whether improving the lipid profile via dietary intervention would have beneficial effects on immune functions as well
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