Synergistic effect of conjugated linolenic acid isomers against induced oxidative stress, inflammation and erythrocyte membrane disintegrity in rat model

Background: alpha-Eleostearic acid and punicic acid, two typical conjugated linolenic acid (CLnA) isomers present in bitter gourd and snake gourd oil respectively, exhibit contrasting cis-trans configuration which made them biologically important. Methods: Rats were divided into six groups. Group 1 was control and group 2 was treated control. Rats in the groups 3 and 4 were treated with mixture of alpha-eleostearic acid and punicic acid (1:1) (0.5% and 1.0% respectively) while rats in the groups 5 and 6 were treated with 0.5% of alpha-eleostearic acid and 0.5% of punicic acid respectively along with sodium arsenite by oral gavage once per day. Results: Results showed that increase in nitric oxide synthase (NOS) activity, inflammatory markers expression, platelet aggregation, lipid peroxidation, protein oxidation, DNA damage and altered expression of liver X receptor-alpha (LXR-alpha) after arsenite treatment were restored with the supplementation of oils containing CLnA isomers. Altered activities of different antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase and ferric reducing ability of plasma (FRAP) also restored after oil supplementation. Altered morphology and fluidity of erythrocyte membrane studied by atomic force and scanning electron microscopy, after stress induction were significantly improved due to amelioration in cholesterol/phospholipid ratio and fatty acid profile of membrane. Oils treatment also improved morphology of liver and fatty acid composition of hepatic lipid. Conclusions: Overall two isomers showed synergistic antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effect against induced perturbations and membrane disintegrity. General significance: Synergistic antioxidant and anti-inflammatory role of these CLnA isomers were established by this study. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.