2021 Volume 30 Issue 1 Pages 76-82
Antiatherogenic effect of a domestic species of garlic ‘Hokkaido Zairai’ cultivated in Tokoro, Kitami, Hokkaido, which is called pink garlic was evaluated using apolipoprotein E (ApoE)-deficient mice. Male apoE-deficient mice (4-week-old) were fed a high-fat diet (HF), HF diet with 0.15% (w/w) cholesterol (HC), and HC diet with 5% pink garlic powder (HC-G), respectively. After mice fed the diets for 13 weeks, we collected their serum, feces, and heart. The serum and feces were used for lipid analysis and the aortic valve of heart was used for the lipid deposition evaluation with Oil Red O stained. Dietary pink garlic powder reduced serum total cholesterol contents, suppressed lipid deposition areas of aortic valve, and enhanced the fecal neutral sterol excretion compared with dietary HC diet. Moreover, the fecal neutral sterols excretion in the HC-G group have been increased by fibers contained in pink garlic. These results suggest that dietary pink garlic may decrease serum cholesterol content and suppresses the development of atherosclerosis in ApoE-deficient mice.
