Whole Wheat‐supplemented Diet Prevents Risk Biomarkers of Cardiovascular Diseases in Obese Diabetic Mice

Abstract

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the number one cause of death around the world.Our objective was to investigate if whole wheat consumption can delay or prevent the onset of CVD.Obese diabetic (db/db) mice were fed with standard or whole‐wheat supplemented diets ad libitum for eight weeks. The lean counterpart controls were fed standard diet. At the end of the study blood and heart tissues were analyzed for protein expression of risk markers for CVD using standard biochemical and molecular biology procedures.Results show that whole wheat consumption decreased biomarkers of oxidative damage in blood including reactive oxygen species levels in blood erythrocytes and protein carbonyls in plasma. This was accompanied by lower plasma levels of proinflammatory cytokine interleukin‐6 which contribute to endothelial dysfunction in obesity. Accordingly, the nuclear factor‐κB (NF‐κB) pro‐inflammatory transcription factor and NF‐κB‐target TNF‐α were downregulated in heart tissues. The downregulation of inflammatory markers in heart tissues might be correlated with decreased abdominal, subcutaneous, and heart adipose tissues and adipokine resistin, which plays a key role in the alteration of immune and inflammatory processes that favor metabolic disorders and atherosclerosis development. Overall, these results strongly support that whole wheat consumption mitigates the obesity‐induced inflammation and metabolic disorders that promote the onset of CVD.