Abstract
Scope: Theobromine is a major active compound in cocoa with allegedly beneficial effect on high-density-lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-CH). We have investigated the effect of theobromine (TB) consumption on the concentrations of triglyceride (TG) and cholesterol (CH) in various lipoprotein (LP) subclasses.Methods: In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over study, 44 apparently healthy women and men (age: 60 ± 6 years, BMI: 29 ± 3 kg/m2) with low baseline HDL-CH concentrations consumed a drink supplemented with 500 mg/d theobromine for 4 weeks. TG and CH concentrations in 15 LP subclasses were predicted from diffusion-edited 1H NMR spectra of fasting serum.Results: The LP phenotype of the subjects was characterized by low CH concentrations in the large HDL particles and high TG concentrations in large VLDL and chylomicron (CM) particles, which clearly differed from a LP phenotype of subjects with normal HDL-CH. TB only reduced CH concentrations in the LDL particles by 3.64 and 6.79%, but had no effect on TG and CH in any of the HDL, VLDL and CM subclasses.Conclusion: TB was not effective on HDL-CH in subjects with a LP phenotype characterized by low HDL-CH and high TG in VLDL.
Highlights
Theobromine (TB) is postulated as one of the active constituents explaining the cardioprotective effects of cocoa products, dark chocolate and tea (Berends et al, 2015)
Effect of Theobromine on Lipoproteins have shown that increasing plasma high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-CH and apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I) did not result in consistent cardio-protective effects as reviewed by Choi et al (2017)
Partial Least Squares (PLS) models were built on a training set of 80 serum samples, which were subsequently tested on an independent set of 42 serum samples
Summary
Theobromine (TB) is postulated as one of the active constituents explaining the cardioprotective effects of cocoa products, dark chocolate and tea (Berends et al, 2015). In healthy subjects consuming 850 mg theobromine for 4 weeks, serum high-density-lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-CH) and apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I) concentrations increased by 10 and 8%, respectively (Neufingerl et al, 2013). Plasma HDL-CH concentrations have consistently been shown to be inversely associated with coronary heart disease (CHD) risk in large-scale epidemiological studies (Boden, 2000). Effect of Theobromine on Lipoproteins have shown that increasing plasma HDL-CH and apoA-I did not result in consistent cardio-protective effects as reviewed by Choi et al (2017). This has led to the current paradigm that raising HDL-CH concentrations as such is not a target for CHD risk lowering. Pre-beta HDL and the smaller HDL (HDL-3) particles seem to interact with the ATP-binding cassette transporter A1 (ABCA1) on macrophages facilitating cholesterol ester (CE) efflux, whereas the larger HDL subclass (HDL-2) is the acceptor for ABCG1 (Wang et al, 2004; Hafiane et al, 2015)
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