Effects of long-term intake of Antarctic krill oils on artery blood pressure in spontaneously hypertensive rats.
BACKGROUND
In recent years, there has been a noticeable increase in research on krill oil (KO) for its health benefits. However, the action of KO in lowering blood pressure (BP) has not been studied yet. Therefore the aim of this study was to assess the ability of long-term KO supplementation to lower systolic BP (SBP) in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs) and Sprague Dawley (SD) rats.


RESULTS
Compared with the blank control (BC) SHRs administered edible soybean oil, the high-dose (500 mg kg-1body weight (BW)) KO-supplemented SHRs in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th weeks following oral administration, the mid-dose (100 mg kg-1BW) KO-supplemented SHRs in the 4th and 5th weeks following oral administration and the low-dose (20 mg kg-1BW) KO-supplemented SHRs in the 5th week following oral administration showed significantly lower SBP (P < 0.05). However, supplementation of KO had no significant effect on the SBP of healthy SD rats. Meanwhile, 5 weeks of KO administration significantly increased the serum levels of nitric oxide (NO) and total NO synthase of SHRs (P < 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
KO has an antihypertensive effect in SHRs that is associated with an NO-related mechanism. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry.
School of Food Science and Technology, Dalian Polytechnic University, Dalian, 116034, China.|National Engineering Research Center of Seafood, Dalian, 116034, China.|Department of Biochemistry, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St John's, A1B 3X9, NL, Canada.
Da-Yong
DY
Zhou
School of Food Science and Technology, Dalian Polytechnic University, Dalian, 116034, China.
Yu-Xin
YX
Liu
School of Pharmacy, Liaoning University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Dalian, 116600, China.
Zhi-Li
ZL
Xu
School of Food Science and Technology, Dalian Polytechnic University, Dalian, 116034, China.
Fa-Wen
FW
Yin
School of Food Science and Technology, Dalian Polytechnic University, Dalian, 116034, China.|National Engineering Research Center of Seafood, Dalian, 116034, China.
Liang
L
Song
School of Food Science and Technology, Dalian Polytechnic University, Dalian, 116034, China.
Xiu-Lin
XL
Wan
School of Food Science and Technology, Dalian Polytechnic University, Dalian, 116034, China.
Yu-Kun
YK
Song
School of Food Science and Technology, Dalian Polytechnic University, Dalian, 116034, China.|National Engineering Research Center of Seafood, Dalian, 116034, China.
Bei-Wei
BW
Zhu
D000818:Animals; D000959:Antihypertensive Agents / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001158:Arteries / Q000187:drug effects; D001688:Biological Products / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000187:drug effects*; D033201:Euphausiacea; D015525:Fatty Acids, Omega-3 / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D005260:Female; D006973:Hypertension / Q000097:blood / Q000188:drug therapy*; D008297:Male; D009569:Nitric Oxide / Q000097:blood; D019001:Nitric Oxide Synthase / Q000378:metabolism; D009821:Oils / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D011918:Rats, Inbred SHR; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley
D000959:Antihypertensive Agents; D001688:Biological Products; D015525:Fatty Acids, Omega-3; D009821:Oils; D009569:Nitric Oxide; D019001:Nitric Oxide Synthase
antihypertensive effect; astaxanthin; krill oil; omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids; spontaneously hypertensive rats