Effect of long-chain fatty alcohols from orujo olive oil on nitric oxide and eicosanoid generation

Abstract

Olive pomace oil ('orujo' oil) is an olive oil product suitable for human consumption that is traditionally produced in Spain (1) . The nonacylglycerol component of this oil is a good source of interesting minor components, e.g. triterpenes (2) , or fatty alcohols, derived from waxy materials. Tetracosanol (C 24 OH; 30 %), hexacosanol (C 26 OH; 37 %) and octacosanol (C 28 OH; 15 %) are the major constituents of the long-chain fatty alcohol (LCFA) fraction isolated from orujo olive oil (3) . A similar mixture of long-chain alcohols, termed 'policosanol' and purified from waxy materials of different sources such as sugar cane, bees wax, rice bran or spinach, have shown many beneficial physiological activities (4,5) . The present study focused on the effect of LCFA isolated from orujo olive oil on NO, PGE 2 and TNFa release by a lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated murine macrophage cell line (RAW-264.7) as well as the effect on thromboxane B 2 (TXB 2 ) generation by A-23187-stimulated rat peritoneal neutrophils (PMN). Nitrite (as an index of NO generation) levels were determined by a fluorometric method. PGE 2 , TNFa and TXB 2 production were quantified by sandwich immunoassay.LCFA significantly and dose-dependently decreased the NO production in LPS-stimulated RAW-264.7 cell line macrophages (Fig. 1). Western-blot analysis for inducible NO synthase (iNOS) showed that NO reduction was a consequence of the 100% inhibition of iNOS expression at a dose of 100 mg/ml (Fig. 2). By contrast, LCFA scarcely affected PGE 2 levels ( Fig.