Low-cholesterol and high-fat diets reduce atherosclerotic lesion development in ApoE-knockout mice

We have investigated the effect of most common oils used in human nutrition on the development of atherosclerosis in apoE-knockout mice. Seven groups of animals, separated according to sex, were fed for 10 weeks either chow d iet or the chow diet 10% (wt/wt) enriched with different oils (palm, coconu t, 2 types of olive oil, and 2 types of sunflower oil) without addition of cholesterol, At the end of this period, plasma lipid parameters were measur ed and vascular lesions scored. None of the diets induced changes in plasma cholesterol concentrations, whereas plasma triglycerides were uniformly re duced in all diet groups. Some diets caused significant reductions in the s ize of atherosclerotic lesions in males and others in females; males respon ded most to sunflower oils and females to palm oil and one olive oil (II). The lesion reduction in males consuming sunflower oils was associated with the decrease of triglycerides in triglyceride-rich lipoproteins, whereas th e decrease in females consuming olive oil II or palm oil was accompanied by an increase in plasma apoA-I. The increase in plasma apoA-I in the latter condition, is mainly due to overexpression of hepatic message elicited by a mechanism independent of apoE ligand. The data suggest that the different diets modulate lesion development in a gender specific manner and by differ ent mechanisms and that the development of atherosclerosis, due to genetic deficiencies, may be modulated by nutritional maneuvers that may be impleme nted in human nutrition.