Abstract
Polyphenols are bioactive compounds found naturally in fruits and vegetables; they are widely used in disease prevention and health maintenance. Polyphenol-rich blackcurrant extract (BCE) exerts beneficial effects on vascular health in menopausal model animals. However, the vasculoprotective effects in diabetes mellitus (DM) and atherosclerotic vascular disease secondary to DM are unknown. Therefore, we investigated whether BCE is effective in preventing atherosclerosis using KK-Ay mice as a diabetes model. The mice were divided into three groups and fed a high-fat diet supplemented with 1% BCE (BCE1), 3% BCE (BCE2), or Control for 9 weeks. The mice in the BCE2 group showed a considerable reduction in the disturbance of elastic lamina, foam cell formation, and vascular remodeling compared to those in the BCE1 and Control groups. Immunohistochemical staining indicated that the score of endothelial nitric oxide synthase staining intensity was significantly higher in both BCE2 (2.9) and BCE1 (1.9) compared to that in the Control (1.1). Furthermore, the score for the percentage of alpha-smooth muscle actin was significantly lower in the BCE2 (2.9%) than in the Control (2.1%). Our results suggest that the intake of anthocyanin-rich BCE could have beneficial effects on the blood vessels of diabetic patients.
Highlights
Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a serious metabolic disorder with an increasing incidence worldwide
Structural irregularities were observed in the blood vessels of all mice in the Control and BCE1 groups, some specimens of the BCE2 groups appeared to have an almost normal structural irregularities were observed in the blood vessels of all mice in the Control and Molecules 20B21C, 2E6,1645g9roups, some specimens of the BCE2 groups appeared to have an almost no3romf 1a1l vessel structure
We focused on the inhibitory effect of blackcurrant extract (BCE) on arteriosclerosis secondary to diabetes; we did not evaluate the direct anti-diabetic effect of BCE
Summary
Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a serious metabolic disorder with an increasing incidence worldwide. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) caused by atherosclerosis secondary to DM has been proposed as an important risk factor for death in patients with diabetes, as it significantly reduces the quality of life of the patients [3,4,5,6,7,8]. CVD caused by atherosclerosis in patients with diabetes has been reported to be more severe than that in patients without DM [9,10]. The adoption of a recommended diet is recognized as promoting human health, and dietary modification significantly reduces the risk of diseases [11,12]
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