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Anti‐atherosclerotic effects of diosgenin in ApoE‐deficient mice
Author(s) -
Park HyeJin,
Byeon HyeEun,
Koo HyunJung,
Pyo Suhkneung
Publication year - 2011
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.25.1_supplement.980.2
Subject(s) - diosgenin , proinflammatory cytokine , inflammation , medicine , endocrinology , cholesterol , monocyte , chemistry , organic chemistry
Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease initiated by vascular inflammation and monocyte recruitment in part. Diosgenin, a precursor of steroid hormones, has been shown to have a variety of biological activities including anti‐inflammatory activity. Resent findings that diosgenin inhibits VCAM‐1 expression on vascular smooth muscle cells and leukocyte adhesion led us to evaluate its ability to inhibit the development of atherosclerosis in experimental mice. 34 male ApoE −/− mice and 17 control (C57BL/6J) mice were fed a high‐fat/high‐cholesterol diet for 21 weeks. To examine the effect of dietary diosgenin on atherosclerosis, 17 of the ApoE −/− mice were also given diosgenin (oral administration of 50 mg/kg body weight, 3 times per week for the duration of the study). Diosgenin had slight but insignificant suppressive effects on the lipid deposition and the local infiltration of monocytes/macrophages in aorta. However, diosgenin significantly decreased serum levels of CRP, MCP‐1 and total cholesterol while it slightly increased the level of HDL. In addition, diosgenin attenuated the level of oxLDL in serum. The present study demonstrates that diosgenin might have a protective effect against atherosclerosis by regulating proinflammatory mediators in serum.