Acute effects of a high-fat meal with and without red wine on endothelial function in healthy subjects

It has been suggested that a high-far meal may acutely impair endothelium-d ependent vasodilation and that this impairment may be prevented by concomit ant intake of antioxidants. Because red wine contains antioxidant polypheno ls and may reduce cardiovascular disease, we examined the effect of red win e on postprandial endothelial function. Using a crossover design, 13 health y volunteers consumed a high-fat meal (0.8 g fat/kg body weight) with red w ine (3 ml/kg) or an isocaloric control beverage on 2 separate days, 1 week apart. Flow-mediated dilation of the brachial artery wets examined by vascu lar ultrasound at baseline and at 2, 4, and 6 hours after the meal. At thes e times, flow-mediated dilation with the high-fat meal and control beverage was 9.5 +/- 5.0%, 7.9 +/- 5.1%, 6.8 +/- 3.6%, and 7.3 +/- 4.6%,respectivel y (nonsignificant trend). There was also a nonsignificant trend for flow-me diated dilation after the high-fat meal with wine: 8.0 +/- 4.1%, 5.7 +/- 4. 7%, 6.4 +/- 3.1%, and 6.9 +/- 3.8%, respectively. There was no difference i n the effects between wine and the control beverage (p = 0.77). Triglycerid es increased 2- to 2.7-fold over baseline (p = 0.0001) with a peak occurrin g 5 hours after the high-fat meals. In contrast to previous studies, the pr esent study did not demonstrate a significant effect of a high-fat meal on endothelial vasomotor function in healthy subjects. Under these conditions, we did not demonstrate a beneficial acute effect of red wine on endothelia l function. (C) 1999 by Excerpta Medico, Inc.