The Effects Of Beta-Carotene From Dunalielia Salina On Experimantal Atherosclerosis And Fatty Liver In Quails

Objective To study the effects of beta-carotene from dunalielia salina on experimental atherosclerosis and fatty liver in quails and its possible mechanisms.Methods In this study, 151 healthy male quails were divided randomly into seven groups based on oral feeding with different diet everyday. Eight weeks later, all high-cholesterol diet for quails was changed to ordinary one during the last two weeks(from nine to 11 weeks) . At the end of 8th and 11th weeks, the venous blood of quails in each group was collected for detection of serum total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride(TG), malondial-dehyde( MDA), high density lipoprotein cholesterol(HDL-C) , low density lipoprotein cho-lesterol( LDL-C) and the value of LDL-C, VLDL-C and the ratio of HDL-C/TC were cal-culated. Eighty-one quails at the end of 8th,and 70 quails at the end of 11th were killed, and the aorta artery, liver taken out, the contents of total cholesterol (TC) , free cholester-ol(FC), cholesterol ester (CE)and MDA in arterial wall measured. The arterial wall and liver were examined by light microscopy. The Ratio of the live and body weight were calcu-lated.Results At the end of eighth week, the levels of TC , CE and MDA in the arterial wall of groups B ,C and E were lower than those of higher-cholesterol diet control group (P<0. 05). At the end of llth week, the levels of serum TC, MDA,LDL-C and VLDL-C as well as TC and CE in arterial wall of groups B, C, D and E were lower and the rate of HDL-C/TC was higher than those of high-cholesterol diet controls (P<0. 05). Histological Examinations showed that there were 10~20 layers of foam cells in high-cholesterol diet controls,and 2~4 layers in A , B ,C ,D ,E groups,which suggested that the proliferation of smooth muscle cells of A ,B ,C ,D ,E groups was much less than that of higher-cholesterol diet control group. The ratio of liver and body weight Were higher in group A , B ,C, D, E than in that of ordinary diet control group(P<0. 05). The ratio of liver and body weight were lower in A , B , C groups than that in higher-cholesterol diet control group (P<0. 05). Hepatic histopathological examinations show that the pathological changes of fatty liver in quails of -C 6. 25-25. 00 mg/kg were alleviated. The percentage of the liver cell with denatured fat was lower than that of the higher-cholesterol diet controlgroup (P<0. 05).Conclusion Beta-carotene could regulate lipid metabolism, scavenge the lipoperoxida-tion and inhibit the deposition of cholesterol and its ester in the arterial wall to prevent the development of AS and fatty liver.