EFFECTS OF DIETARY SHRIMP, SQUID AND OCTOPUS ON SERUM AND LIVER LIPID-LEVELS IN MICE

The effects of three seafoods, shrimp, squid and octopus, on lipid met abolism were investigated in mice fed on 0.1% and 1.0% cholesterol-sup plemented diets in the first experiment. One of each of these seafoods and casein were added to the basal diet at levels of 15% and 5%, resp ectively, as proteins. Casein served as the sole protein source of the control diet. The serum cholesterol concentration was significantly l ower in the mice fed on shrimp and squid in the 0.1% cholesterol diet and on any seafood in the 1.0% cholesterol diet when compared with tha t in the mice fed on the control diet. The liver cholesterol concentra tion was significantly lower in all seafood groups given the 0.1% chol esterol diet, and in the squid and octopus groups given the 1.0% chole sterol diet. In the second experiment, the effect of these seafoods on lipid metabolism was compared with that of their defatted products in mice fed on a 0.2% cholesterol diet. Defatting resulted in an increas e in the serum cholesterol and triglyceride levels in the shrimp and s quid groups. The hepatic cholesterol concentration in all the seafood groups was significantly lower than that in the control group, and def atting did not influence the liver cholesterol concentration. Fecal to tal steroid excretion was higher in all the seafood groups when compar ed with that in the control group, and was not modified by the removal of fats. Thus, shrimp, squid and octopus exerted hypolipidemic activi ty; the serum cholesterol-lowering activity of shrimp and squid was at tributed to their lipid fraction, whereas the non-lipid fraction of sh rimp, squid and octopus contributed to a reduction of hepatic choleste rol and an increase of fecal steroid excretion.