OLIVE OIL IMPACT ON CHOLESTEROL METABOLISM IN HYPERCHOLESTEROLEMIC RABBITS

SIMÓN LAYLA; FOURNIER F; ROMERO A; FUNES A; JAKOVCEVIC D; YAPUR M; BOARELLI P V; MONCLUS M; CAYADO N; CABRILLANA M E; VINCENTI AE; SAEZ LANCELLOTTI E; FORNÉS MW

Mendoza

Congreso; XXXI reuniòn Cientifica Anual de la Sociedad de Biologia de CUyo; 2013

Olive oil (OO), the principal fat of Mediterranean Diet, is known to benefit hypercholesterolemia (HC), a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. We have previously found that HC rabbits have poor semen/sperm quality, and OO supplementation improved semen parameters affected by high fat diet. Our interest resides in studying the intracellular pathway of cholesterol (chol) metabolism in rabbit testis under different experimental diets (control; 0.05% chol and protected by 7% OO). We found that saturated or unsaturated lipid intake affects differently the intracellular pathway of chol metabolism. Specifically, a transcription factor, SREBP, changed its expression (RNAm and protein) depending on the type of fat consumed, showing a putative molecular mechanism for OO protection. Our data demonstrate that OO improves semen quality in our rabbit model of HC, and suggests that the mechanisms accounting for this protective effect likely involves complex alterations in cellular metabolism beyond simply a reduction in chol.