Changes in lipid profile of rat plasma after chronic administration of ...

Research Article Biology and Medicine, 2 (3): 58-63, 2010Statistical AnalysisThe group data was expressed as Mean ±SEM (Standard Error of the Mean). Unpaired"t" tests were done for statistical significancetests. SPSS (Statistical Package for SocialScience) for WINDOWS (Ver. 11) was appliedfor the analysis of data. Differences betweengroups were considered significant at p < 0.05,0.01 and 0.001.ResultsSimilar trend of changes in the lipid profileparameters were observed in both male andfemale rats during the course of research. Thedecrement of plasma triglycerides in bothsexes of animals was noteworthy and it wasstatistically very highly significant (p=0.001***).In case of total cholesterol, a decreasing trendwas observed in both male (p=0.296) andfemale rats (p=0.511). On the contrary theconcentration of VLDL, LDL and HDLcholesterol was increased in both male andfemale rats and the increase of LDL in malerats was statistically significant (p=0.047*).The increase in VLDL and HDL in both maleand female rats was not statistically significant(Table 2, Graph 1 and 2).DiscussionAtherogenicity with subsequent cardiovascularmanifestations is one of the major causes ofdeath and morbidity in the world (Raju andBinda, 2005). Various studies indicate thathigh serum cholesterol levels are stronglyrelated to coronary atherosclerosis andincreased risk of cardiovascular diseases.Clinical studies have also shown that loweringlevels of serum cholesterol using diet or drugsdecreases the incidence of coronary heartdisease (Steiner and Li, 2000; Treasure et al.,1995). The levels of serum TC and TG werefound to be significantly reduced in the LNRtreated animals. This might be due to thereduced hepatic triglyceride synthesis and orreduced lipolysis that might be due to theincrease in serum insulin levels in the LNRtreated rats. (Sivaraj et al., 2009). Theobserved hypotriglyceridemic effect may bedue to a decrease of fatty acids synthesis(Bopanna et al., 1997), enhanced catabolismof LDL, activation of LCAT and tissues lipases(Khanna et al., 2002) and/or inhibition ofacetyl-CoA carboxylase (McCarty, 2001) andproduction of triglycerides precursors suchacetyl-CoA and glycerol phosphate.The underlying mechanism by whichLNR exerts its cholesterol lowering effectseems to be a decrease in cholesterolabsorption from the intestine, by binding withbile acids within the intestine and increasingbile acids excretion (Kritchevsky, 1978; Kellyand Tsai, 1978). LNR can also act bydecreasing the cholesterol biosynthesisespecially by decreasing the 3-hydroxy-3-methyl-glutaryl coenzyme A reductase(HMGCoA reductase) activity, a key enzymeof cholesterol biosynthesis (Kedar andChakrabarti, 1982; Sharma et al., 2003) and/orby reducing the NADPH required for fattyacids and cholesterol synthesis (Chi, 1982).HDL cholesterol is an independent negativerisk factor for coronary artery disease, atpresent representing the only protective factoragainst atherosclerosis. The HDL increasingeffect of LNR is largely attributed to its centralfunction in the reverse cholesterol transport, aprocess whereby excess cell cholesterol istaken up and processed by HDL particles forfurther delivery to the liver for metabolism(Martinez et al., 2004).ConclusionLNR is a popular Ayurvedic formulation usedin the treatment of pandu (anemia) inBangladesh. In the present study, the changescaused by LNR was not congruent incase ofall the studied parameters of lipid profileparticularly incase of LDL and VLDL. So itnecessitates further investigation for usingLNR in the patients who are at risk in thedevelopment of cardiovascular disease.ReferencesAsolkar AV, Kakkar KK, Chakre OJ, 1992. Glossaryof Indian Medicinal plants with active principles.Publication and information directorate (CSIR), NewDelhi, 1: 287.Bhattacharya SK, Satyan KS, Chakrobarti A, 1997.Effects of Trasina: An Ayurvedic herbal formulationon pancreatic islet superoxide dismutase activity inhyperglycemic rats. Indian Journal of ExperimentalBiology, 35(3): 297-299.Bopanna KN, Kannan J, Gadgil S, Balaraman ER,Rathore SP, 1997. Antidiabetic andantihyperglycaemic effects of neem seed kernelpowder on alloxan diabetic rabbits. Indian Journal ofPharmacology, 29: 162–167.Chi MS, 1982. Effects of garlic products on lipidsmetabolism in cholesterol fed rats. In: Proceedingsof Society of Experimental Biology and Medicine,171: 174–178.Davis SN, Granner DK, 1996. Insulin, OralHypoglycemic Agents, and the pharmacology of theEndocrine Pancreas, 9th ed., Chap. 60, ed. ByHardman J.G., Limbird L.E., Molinoff P.B., RuddonR.W., Gilman A.G., McGraw Hill, New York, pp.1487-1518.60