Zoheir Mellouk

Several biological markers have been identified as risk factors for cardiovascular disease and are associated with increased risk of metabolic syndrome (MetS). This study provides a factual information on promising biomarkers that are associated with MetS and can aid in early detection and management of MetS in young adults of Western Algeria. We studied a total of one hundred subjects aged between thirty and forty years with MetS, in which anthropometric measurements, insulin resistance, C peptide and HbA1c, lipid profile, circulating adipokines and glucagon-like peptide-1 were measured by suitable methods, in comparison to two groups of control. MetS is closely linked to altered glucose homeostasis, the plasma insulin/glucose ratio; i.e., the insulinogenic index helps to estimate the level of insulin secretion and also for assessing β-cell function. The correlation between homeostasis model assessment insulin resistance index (HOMA-IR) and HbA1c, body mass index or plasma triglycerides yielded positive and significant values. Biomarkers with a known and predictable association with MetS can provide a means to detect those at risk and intervene as needed. This could significantly decrease the burden complications impose on patients and the healthcare system.

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the total phenolic and lipid content, fatty acids profiles and in vitro antioxidant activities of aqueous and solvent extracts of the red seaweed Asparagopsis taxiformis, through six different investigations. The present study demonstrated that phenol contents (mg gallic acid/g dry weight) were highest in the aqueous and methanolic extracts, followed by the ethanolic, hydroethanolic and hydromethanolic extracts. The lowest phenol contents were identified in the three remaining extracts: Butanolic, petroleum ether and acetone extracts. Furthermore, the total lipid content of the algae powder amounted to 2.85% of dry weight. The fatty acid methyl ester profiles analysed by gas-liquid chromatography represented indicated that fatty acids comprised 91.0±0.3% of total algae lipids. The saturated to unsaturated fatty acid contents amounted to 23.2±0.1 and 67.9±0.4% respectively. C13:0 (tridecanoate), C15:0 (pentadecanoate) and C17:0 (heptadecanoate) represented 47.4% of the total saturated fatty acids. Notably, the two most abundant unsaturated fatty acids, C15:1 (pentadecenoate) and C18:2 (octadecadienoate) represented 13.4 and 11.4% respectively, of the total unsaturated fatty acid content. Furthermore, the results of the antioxidant screening performed at 1.0 mg/ml, revealed that aqueous and methanolic extracts exhibited higher inhibition against superoxide and nitric oxide radicals and excellent radical scavenging activity [with half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values 5.1 and 15.0 µg/ml, respectively], demonstrating improved antioxidant behavior when compared with standard ascorbic acid (which has an IC50 value of 3.7 µg/ml). Scavenging activity of the aqueous and methanolic extracts exhibited a strong peroxidation inhibition against linoleic acid emulsion system at a concentration of 300 µg/ml in comparison to the butylated hydroxyltoluene. Although all the studied extracts exhibited ferric reducing power, the aqueous and methanolic extracts had greater hydrogen donating ability. By contrast, hydromethanolic, ethanolic, hydroethanolic, butanolic, acetone and petroleum ether extracts exhibited weak antioxidant behavior. The antioxidant activity of potent seaweed species identified in the current study means that as well as being used as a functional food, they may be developed as novel pharmaceutical compounds and may be used as anti-ageing agents.

In the present study, the plasma concentration, and liver, heart, kidney, soleus muscle and visceral adipose tissue content of thiobarbituric acid reactive substrates (TBARS), carbonyl radicals, hydroperoxides and nitric oxide were measured in control rats exposed for 8 weeks to a diet containing 64% (w/w) starch and 5% sunflower oil and in animals fed a diet containing 64% D-fructose and 5% sunflower oil or 3.4% sunflower oil mixed with 1.6% safflower or salmon oil. Coherent measurements of the plasma concentrations or tissue contents of these metabolites revealed increases in TBARS, carbonyl radical and hydroperoxide levels and a decrease in nitric oxide levels in the 5% sunflower oil-fed rats. In the fructose-fed rats, the partial substitution of sunflower oil by either safflower or salmon oil minimized the changes. These findings provide further evidence in support of the favorable effects of the dietary supply of long-chain polyunsaturated ω6 and ω3 fatty acids upon the metabolic disturbances prevailing in the fructose-induced metabolic syndrome.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

The present study documents the increases in systolic arterial blood pressure, plasma leptin concentration and kidney proliferating cell nuclear antigen index, as well as the decreases in glutathione reductase, superoxide dismutase and catalase enzymatic activities in the liver, heart, kidney, soleus muscle and visceral adipose tissue homogenates of female rats exposed for 8 weeks to a diet containing 64% (w/w) D-fructose instead of 64% starch. In the fructose-fed rats, the partial substitution of sunflower oil by either safflower oil or salmon oil often opposed the fructose-induced changes in these variables. The present results, thus, extend to these functional, hormonal and enzymatic parameters the knowledge that the dietary supply of long-chain polyunsaturated ω6 fatty acids, mainly C18:2ω6, and long-chain polyunsaturated ω3 fatty acids opposes the undesirable features of the fructose-induced metabolic syndrome, with salmon oil demonstrating particular efficacy.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

The present study deals with the possible effects of dietary ω3 and ω6 fatty acids upon the metabolic syndrome found in rats exposed for 8 weeks to a diet containing 64% (w/w) D-fructose instead of starch. Fructose-fed rats were found to display a modest increase in plasma albumin and protein concentration and more pronounced increases in plasma urea, creatinine, phospholipids, triglycerides and cholesterol concentrations, glycated hemoglobin concentration and liver contents of cholesterol, triglycerides and phospholipids. The plasma concentrations of HDL-cholesterol, calcium and iron were decreased, however, in the fructose-fed rats. In general, the partial substitution of sunflower oil by either safflower oil or salmon oil opposed the metabolic perturbations otherwise associated with the fructose-induced metabolic syndrome in the fructose-fed rats, with salmon oil demonstrating particular efficacy. Consideration is given to the possible biological determinants of these perturbations and their attenuation in rats exposed to safflower or salmon oil.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

In the present study, rats were exposed from the 8th week after birth and for the ensuing 8 weeks to diets containing either starch or fructose (64% w/w) and sunflower oil (5%). Two further groups of rats were exposed to the fructose-containing diet with substitution of part (1.6%) of the sunflower diet by an equal amount of either salmon oil rich in long-chain polyunsaturated ω3 fatty acids or safflower oil reach in long-chain polyunsaturated ω6 fatty acids. The insulin content of the islets and their secretory response to D-glucose (5.6, 8.3 and 16.7 mM), to the combination of D-glucose (5.6 mM) and D-fructose (10.0 mM) and to 2-ketoisocaproate (10.0 mM) were then measured. In the sunflower oil-fed rats, the dietary substitution of starch by fructose decreased basal insulin output, lowered the apparent Km for the insulinotropic action of D-glucose and altered the insulinotropic efficiency of the latter hexose relative to that of other nutrients. Some of these secretory perturbations were opposed by the enrichment of the diet in long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, especially ω3 fatty acids. It is proposed that these changes in B-cell secretory behaviour may be linked, in part at least, to both the apparent caloric efficiency of each diet, and hence to the regulation of the islet content in endogenous nutrients, and to alteration of insulin sensitivity considered as a major feature of the present animal model of metabolic syndrome.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

The present series of experiments aim mainly at investigating the possible influence of changes in the com position of dietary lipids (sunflower oil, salmon oil, safflower oil) upon the metabolic syndrome found in rats exposed to a fructose-rich diet. For purpose of comparison, a control group of rats received the sunflower oil diet with substitution of fructose by starch. An intraperitoneal glucose tolerance test, performed after overnight starvation fifty days after the start of the experiments at the 6th week after birth, indicated, as expected, impaired tolerance to glucose and deterioration of insulin sensitivity (HOMA index), without changes in the insulinogenic index, when comparing the fructose-fed rats to the starch-fed rats both exposed to the sunflower oil diet. In the fructose-fed rats, enrichment of the diet by long-chain polyunsaturated ω3 fatty acids supplied by salmon oil, a modest improvement of insulin sensitivity was opposed, in term of glucose homeostasis, by a decreased secretory response to glucose of insulin-producing cells. Last, in the fructose-fed rats, the partial substitution of sunflower oil by safflower oil rich in long-chain polyunsaturated ω6 fatty acids further deteriorated glucose homeostasis, with a higher mean HOMA index and a severe decrease of the insulinogenic index. These findings justify further investigations on such items as the time course for changes in metabolic and hormonal variables and both the metabolic and secretory responses of isolated pancreatic islets to selected nutrient secretagogues.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe