A positive impact on the serum lipid profile and cytokines after the consumption of a plant sterol-enriched beverage with a milk fat globule membrane: a clinical study

Abstract

The hypocholesterolemic effect and the modification of serum biomarkers of a dietary plant sterol (PS) intake, cholesterol precursors and cytokines after the consumption of milk-based fruit beverages with a milk fat globule membrane were evaluated by a randomized, double-blind, crossover, multiple dose bioavailability study. Postmenopausal women (n = 38) consumed daily 250 mL of a beverage with or without 2 g of PS added during 6 weeks in each of the study periods. With the intake of the PS-added beverage, significant decreases (mg dL-1) in serum total cholesterol (pre-treatment: 220.0 ± 27.8 vs. post-treatment: 212.9 ± 25.8; p < 0.05) and LDL-cholesterol (129.4 ± 28.5 vs. 121.7 ± 24.4; p < 0.05) were detected. The cholesterol precursor lathosterol (11.2%), markers of the dietary PS intake (campesterol 43.1% and β-sitosterol 32.5%), and anti-inflammatory IL-10 cytokine (22.5%) increased significantly, with a concomitant significant reduction in pro-inflammatory IL-1β (6.7%). No variations in HDL-cholesterol, other sterols (desmosterol and stigmasterol) or cytokines (IL-6, IL-8, IL-12p70 and TNF-α) were detected. These results indicated that this kind of PS-enriched milk-based fruit beverage is suitable during the period of clinical intervention, and its consumption may be an adequate way to improve PS functionality since a significant reduction in cholesterol levels has been observed. Therefore, the intake of this beverage could contribute to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease also obtaining a beneficial effect on the serum inflammatory status in postmenopausal women.

Effect of a Milk-Based Fruit Beverage Enriched with Plant Sterols and/or Galactooligosaccharides in a Murine Chronic Colitis Model

“…In this sense, milk-based fruit beverages could be a suitable nutritional matrix for this purpose due to its low-fat content and good sources of bioactive compounds such as polyphenols, carotenoids and vitamins. Moreover, previous studies of our research group have demonstrated the beneficial effect of PS enriched milk-based fruit beverages on oxidative stress prevention and intestinal epithelia integrity maintenance in Caco-2 cells [32], as well as, their systemic anti-inflammatory properties, in hypercholesterolemic post-menopausal women, through the serum increase of anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 with concomitant reduction of IL-1β, cytokine which play an important role on the development of IBD [33].…”

Serum phytosterols associate with T helper 1 cytokine concentration in pregnant women

“…Our findings suggest that phytosterols, specifically β-sitosterol, modulate Th1/ Th2 balance by inducing Th1 secretions in pregnant women. -Sala et al, 2018;Bouic et al, 1996Bouic et al, , 1999Desai et al, 2009;Yeganeh et al, 2005). However, maternal Th1/ Th2 balance has rarely been correlated with phytosterols.…”

“…In addition, a previous study has reported sitosterol/sitosterol-glucoside mixtures decrease stress-induced IL-6 production in marathon runners (Bouic et al, 1999). A mixture of campesterol and β-sitosterol has been suggested to increase IL-10 concentration, with a concomitant significant reduction of IL-1β in postmenopausal women (Alvarez-Sala et al, 2018). However, no association was detected between sitosterol (or campesterol) and serum TNF-α (or IL-6) concentrations in subjects with impaired glucose tolerance (Hallikainen et al, 2007).…”

The Impact of Galactooligosaccharides on the Bioavailability of Sterols: A Randomized, Crossover, Double-Blind Clinical Trial

“…The hypocholesterolemic effect of milk-based fruit beverages enriched with plant sterols (PS) has previously been demonstrated, obtaining a beneficial effect on the serum inflammatory status as well [1]. Galactooligosaccharides (GOS) are added to food products due to their health benefit by selectively stimulating the growth of specific members of the intestinal microbiota [2].…”

“…Volunteers consumed daily 250 mL of a PS-enriched beverage (0.8%, w/v) with or without GOS (1.7%, w/v) for 6 weeks and serum samples were collected before and at the end of each intervention period. Total cholesterol serum levels were measured by a routine quality-controlled method [4] whereas cholesterol precursors (desmosterol and lathosterol) and metabolites (cholestanol), and PS contents (campesterol, stigmasterol and β-sitosterol) were measured by GC-FID [1]. Intake of both beverages (without and with GOS addition) led to a statistically significant decrease (p < 0.05) in total cholesterol serum levels (4.7-5.1%), without significant differences between beverages.…”