Effects of diet-induced hypercholesterolemia and gold nanoparticles treatment on peripheral tissues

Abstract Cholesterol is a lipid molecule of great biological importance to animal cells. Dysregulation of cholesterol metabolism leads to raised blood total cholesterol levels, a clinical condition called hypercholesterolemia. Evidence has shown that hypercholesterolemia is associated with the development of liver and heart disease. One of the mechanisms underlying heart and liver alterations induced by hypercholesterolemia is oxidative stress. In this regard, in several experimental studies, gold nanoparticles (AuNP) displayed antioxidant properties. We hypothesized that hypercholesterolemia causes redox system imbalance in the liver and cardiac tissues, and AuNP treatment could ameliorate it. Young adult male Swiss mice fed a regular rodent diet or a high cholesterol diet for eight weeks and concomitantly treated with AuNP (2.5 μg/kg) or vehicle by oral gavage. Hypercholesterolemia increased the nitrite concentration and glutathione (GSH) levels and decreased the liver’s superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity. Also, hypercholesterolemia significantly enhanced the reactive oxygen species (ROS) and GSH levels in cardiac tissue. Notably, AuNP promoted the redox system homeostasis, increasing the SOD activity in hepatic tissue and reducing ROS levels in cardiac tissue. Overall, our data showed that hypercholesterolemia triggered oxidative stress in mice’s liver and heart, which was partially prevented by AuNP treatment.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	RODRIGUES,MATHEUS S., MARTINS,JULIA N., PAULA,GABRIELA C. DE, VENTURINI,LIGIA M., SILVEIRA,GUSTAVO DE B., STRECK,EMÍLIO L., BUDNI,JOSIANI, ÁVILA,RICARDO A. MACHADO DE, BEM,ANDREZA F. DE, SILVEIRA,PAULO C.L., OLIVEIRA,JADE DE
Format:	Digital revista
Language:	English
Published:	Academia Brasileira de Ciências 2022
Online Access:	http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0001-37652022000800802
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!