CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Proper eating habits are the basis of prevention and control of risk factors associated with chronic diseases which are a significant health burden in industrialized countries and a growing problem in developing countries. High consumption of saturated and trans fatty acids is primarily responsible for the cholesterol that increases cardiovascular morbidity and mortality of ischemic origin. Replacement of saturated by unsaturated fatty acids (cis) produces a favorable decrease in LDL-cholesterol and the ratio of total cholesterol to HDL-cholesterol as important predictors of coronary heart disease. The n-9 oleic acid and n-6 linoleic acid have this beneficial effect. In recent years, high-oleic peanut production has been increased supported by the high stability of peanuts due to the high content of oleic acid. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of high-oleic peanut oil on plasma lipids in Swiss Albino mice in comparison with other vegetable oils. High-oleic peanut, olive and sunflowers oils were used. Fatty acid composition was determined by gas chromatography. Albino swiss mice were fed with semi-synthetic diets with 5% vegetable oil (high oleic peanut, olive or sunflower) for 126 days after weaning. Variance analysis and LSD were performed. Oleic and linoleic acid contents were 78.3% and 4.6% in high-oleic peanut oil, 64.2% and 15.0% in olive oil; and 25.4% and 62.5% in sunflower oil, respectively. Plasma total cholesterol at 126 days was lower in diet with sunflower oil followed by those with olive and high-oleic peanut oils. Plasma triglycerides and HDL-cholesterol levels in mice did not exhibited significant differences between diets. LDL-cholesterol levels were higher in the sunflower oil diet followed by olive oil diet. The lowest values in LDL-cholesterol were observed in high-oleic peanut oil diet. According to these results, high-oleic peanut oil diet improves the HDL/LDL-cholesterol ratio in of Albino swiss mouse plasma.