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The impact of biochemical and physiological factors on the correlation between dietary and serum lycopene
Author(s) -
Burri Betty Jane,
Nelson Mindy Dopler,
Neidlinger Terry Ray
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.20.5.a1318-a
Most studies show low correlations between dietary intake and serum concentrations of lycopene. We hypothesized that adjusting these terms with factors reported to influence fat‐soluble vitamin concentrations would improve this correlation. We measured dietary intakes of lycopene in 47 healthy adults with spinal cord injuries by three‐day (3D) dietary record and food frequency (FFQ). Serum lycopene was measured by reversed‐phase HPLC with diode array detection. Cholesterol, triacylglycerol, protein, and glucose concentrations were measured spectrophotometrically. C‐reactive protein was measured by ELISA. Data was analyzed with SAS. Unadjusted data gave low correlations between dietary and serum lycopene, r 2 = +0.11 for 3D, +0.24 for FFQ. Adjusting data for triacylglycerol, protein, glucose and C‐reactive protein did not improve these correlations significantly. However, adjusting serum lycopene with total cholesterol concentrations resulted in significantly higher correlations, r 2 = +0.65, +0.86 for 3D and FQ, respectively. We did not expect that cholesterol would have such a powerful influence. However, it is common to adjust concentrations of another fat‐soluble antioxidant, alpha‐tocopherol, by cholesterol. Our results suggest that improved correlations between dietary and serum lycopene can be attained by normalizing for cholesterol, which should aid in evaluating the impact of dietary interventions designed to increase lycopene concentrations. This study was funded in part by the Spinal Cord Research Foundation.