Spirulina platensis effects on the levels of total cholesterol, HDL and triacylglycerols in rabbits fed with a hypercholesterolemic diet

Abstract

In this work, hypercholesterolemia was induced in rabbits by feeding them a high cholesterol diet (CD, 350 mg/d) and the effects of supplementing this diet with 0.5 g/d Spirulina platensis was evaluated by measuring the levels of serum total-cholesterol (TC), triacylglycerols (TAG) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL-cholesterol) at the start of the experiment and after 30 d and 60 d. It was found that the levels of serum cholesterol decreased from 1,054±101 mg.dL-1 in the rabbits fed a CD without S. platensis to 516±163 mg.dL-1 to those fed with a high cholesterol diet supplemented with S. platensis (significant at p <0.0001). The addition of Spirulina to the cholesterolemic diet did not cause significative decrease on the levels of triacylglycerols in the animals. The levels of serum high-density lipoprotein (HDL-cholesterol) was 73±31 mg.dL-1 for rabbits fed a CD without S. platensis as compared to 91.0±15.7 mg.dL-1 in those fed a CD supplemented with S. platensis (significant at p=0.1533).