Consumption of ground bison does not increase early atherosclerosis development in hypercholesterolemic hamsters

The present study investigated the effect of substituting the source of die tary protein in a hypercholesterolemic animal model. Sixty male Golden Syri an hamsters approximately 10 weeks of age were placed on a chow diet for on e week. The hamsters were then divided into one of four groups, 15 hamsters per group, based on similar mean plasma cholesterol concentrations and fed a semipurified, hypercholesterolemic diet containing 20% by weight of eith er soy protein, casein, lyophilized ground bison, or lyophilized ground bee f and 0.05% cholesterol for 8 weeks. After 8 weeks of dietary treatment, th e soy protein group had significantly lower plasma total cholesterol (TC), nonHDL-C (very low- and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol), and HDL-C (hi gh-density lipoprotein cholesterol) concentrations compared to the casein ( -20, -23, and -18%; respectively), bison (-24, -32, and -19%; respectively) , and beef(-34, -41, and -30%; respectively). The bison and casein groups h ad significantly lower plasma TC (-14 and -18%, respectively), nonHDL-C (-1 4% and -23%, respectively), and HDL-C (-14 and -15%, respectively) concentr ations compared to the beef. The soy protein, bison, and casein groups had significantly lower plasma triglycerides (TG) concentrations compared to th e beef (-49, -25, and -37%; respectively). Unexpectedly the bison and beef groups had significantly reduced early atherosclerosis compared to the soy protein (-50 and -43%, respectively) and casein (-68 and -64%, respectively ). The soy protein group also had significantly reduced early atheroscleros is compared to the casein (-37%). In conclusion, plasma nonHDL-C may not be a good indicator of the development of early atherosclerosis in the hamste r model and that the reduced early aortic atherosclerosis in the bison fed hamsters may be due in part to both the lipid and protein composition of th e bison. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Inc.