Green Tea Consumption Lower Damage and Inflammatory Cytokines in Rat Cardiovascular System Under Androgenic Stimulation

Vivian Alves Pereira Silva,Mauricio Alves Chagas,Gilson Teles Boaventura,José Antonio Silva Ribas,Renato Souza Abboud

doi:10.11648/j.ajss.20190704.12

Vivian Alves Pereira Silva, Mauricio Alves Chagas + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajss.20190704.12

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Abstract

The abuse of anabolic androgenic steroids by youth and adolescents, athletes and non-athletes, is related to the occurrence of cardiovascular diseases. Contrastingly, green tea prevents and attenuates the cellular damage, improving the biochemical profile and reducing inflammation. This study aims to evaluate the benefits of consuming green tea to attenuate the inflammatory parameters and the cardiovascular damage, which are caused due to supraphysiological doses of testosterone, by analyzing the serological profile and the histoarchitecture of the heart and the arteries of 28 42-day-old male Wistar rats. Silicone pellets containing testosterone were surgically implanted and replaced every four weeks. After 20 weeks, all the male rats were anesthetized and their blood samples collected for serological analysis. Fragments of the aorta, left cardiac ventricle and penis were excised and processed to paraffin. To access morphometrical and stereological parameters, tissue fragments were stained and the images analyzed employing Image J software. The rats consuming green tea exhibited a reduction in aorta wall thickness (22%), luminal area (40%) and wall area (52%), with a lower number of elastic lamella. The dorsal artery of the penis presented with a higher wall area and lower luminal area in induced group compared to the other three groups. Tea consumption also led to a significant reduction in the left ventricle thickness with no increase in volumetric density of collagen fibers. Inflammatory cytokines were also shown to have increased in induced group, indicating cardiovascular risk due to their exposure to testosterone. Except for the endothelial vascular growth factor, this effect was not observed in the groups that consumed tea. It can be concluded that the consumption of green tea has a protective effect on the morphology of cardiovascular tissues and reduces inflammatory indicators, which points out this food as an agent capable of reducing cardiovascular disease risk factors related to high doses of anabolic androgenic steroids.

Highlights

Abuse of androgenic anabolic steroids has been on the rise since the 1990s, and today children, adolescents and young people use supraphysiological doses of these substances, especially in the context of high-performance athletes [1,2,3,4,5]
The occurrence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) associated with supraphysiological levels of testosterone is strongly related to the inflammatory process that occurs in the heart and the vessels of Wistar rats
Thereby, this study aims to evaluate the effects of green tea consumption as a nutraceutical food, on the damage to the cardiovascular system of Wistar rats, caused by the use of supraphysiological doses of testosterone, evaluating the morphometric effects and the inflammatory profile of TNFalpha, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and using the heart, aorta and the dorsal artery of the penis as comparative arterial models for the study

Summary

Introduction

Abuse of androgenic anabolic steroids has been on the rise since the 1990s, and today children, adolescents and young people use supraphysiological doses of these substances, especially in the context of high-performance athletes [1,2,3,4,5]. Previous studies have shown a positive association between the use of testosterone as a steroid anabolic and the development of cardiovascular disease (CVD) [8, 9]. Excessive use of testosterone can culminate in the user's death even without a history of disease [2, 5, 10,11,12,13,14]. The occurrence of CVD associated with supraphysiological levels of testosterone is strongly related to the inflammatory process that occurs in the heart and the vessels of Wistar rats. Among the major inflammatory markers of CVD belong tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) [15] and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) [16], which are acute phase markers, and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), which indicates angiogenesis and tissue repair [17]

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