title: Effect of dietary fenugreek seeds on biliary proteins that influence nucleation of cholesterol crystals in bile.
abstract: Formation of cholesterol gallstones in gallbladder is controlled by procrystallising and anticrystallising factors present in bile. Dietary fenugreek seed has been recently observed to possess anti-lithogenic potential in experimental mice. In the current animal study, we evaluated the effect of dietary fenugreek on the compositional changes in the bile, particularly its effect on glycoproteins, low-molecular-weight (LMW) and high-molecular-weight (HMW) proteins, cholesterol nucleation time and cholesterol crystal growth. Groups of Wistar rats were fed for 10 weeks with diets: (1) basal control (C), (2) C+fenugreek (12%), (3) high cholesterol diet (HCD) and (4) HCD+fenugreek (12%). Feeding of HCD containing 0.5% cholesterol for 10 weeks rendered the bile lithogenic. Incorporation of fenugreek into HCD decreased the cholesterol content (70.5%), total protein (58.3%), glycoprotein (27.5%), lipid peroxides (13.6%) and cholesterol saturation index (from 1.98 to 0.75) in bile, increased the bile flow rate (19.5%), prolonged the cholesterol nucleation time and reduced the vesicular form of cholesterol (65%), which was accompanied with an increase in smaller vesicular form (94%). There was an increase in biliary phospholipid (33%) and total bile acid (49%) contents in the HCD+fenugreek group as compared with the HCD group. Electrophoretic separation of biliary LMW proteins showed the presence of a high concentration of 28-kDa protein, which might be responsible for the prolongation of cholesterol nucleation time in the fenugreek-fed groups. These findings indicate that the beneficial anti-lithogenic effect of dietary fenugreek, which primarily is due to reduction in the cholesterol content in bile, was additionally affected through a modulation of the nucleating and anti-nucleating proteins, which, in turn, affect cholesterol crystallisation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Nutrition, Central Food Technological Research Institute, CSIR, Mysore, Karnataka 570020, India.
authors.forename: Raghunatha R L
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Reddy
authors.forename: Krishnapura
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Srinivasan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001646:Bile / Q000737:chemistry*; D001647:Bile Acids and Salts / Q000032:analysis; D001659:Biliary Tract / Q000737:chemistry*; D002784:Cholesterol / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry*; D003460:Crystallization; D004032:Diet; D007004:Hypoglycemic Agents; D010743:Phospholipids / Q000032:analysis; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D011506:Proteins / Q000032:analysis / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D029910:Trigonella
chemical_list: C095486:B1-p28 protein, human; D001647:Bile Acids and Salts; D007004:Hypoglycemic Agents; D010743:Phospholipids; D010936:Plant Extracts; D011506:Proteins; C056164:fenugreek seed meal; D002784:Cholesterol