Palm Tocotrienol Improves Vascular Impairments Caused by Western Diet

13 Dec 2016 --- A new animal study has revealed that supplementation with palm tocotrienol may help to decrease the vascular function impairment seen in rats that are fed a high-fat western diet. Excelvite, the creators of the palm tocotrienol used in the study, EVNol, say that while the study was carried out with rats, it can be postulated that the same trend could be seen in humans.

In the study, male Wistar-Hooded rats were randomly assigned into standard diet (normal fat content) and western diet (high fat content) for 12 weeks.

40mg/kg/day of EVNol (formerly known as Tocomin, and supplied by ExcelVite) or peanut oil were administered subcutaneously from week 8th until cessation of the study.

In addition to weekly measurement of food intake and bodyweight, production of nitric oxide (NO) and superoxide, and associated protein expressions were measured too.

The objective of this study was to examine whether tocotrienol has acute protective actions in oxidative stress-induced endothelial dysfunction.

A good vascular function is highly depending on endothelium-dependent relaxation. When endothelium-dependent relaxation is impaired, the production of NADPH and superoxide increases, followed by vascular oxidative stress.

Oxidative stress leads to increased protein expression such as caveolin-1, decreased protein expression of eNOS (endothelial NO synthase), calmodulin, phosphorylated Akt, as well as reduced NO-mediated and Acetylcholine (Ach)-induced endothelium relaxation, which collectively leads to vascular impairment.

Rats fed with western diet show significant higher body weights and epididymal fat mass compared to rats fed with standard diet.

However, after undergoing 4 weeks of EVNol supplementation, rats fed with western diet demonstrated significant increased Ach-induced relaxation and NO-mediated relaxation while significant decreased production of superoxide, expression of Nox2 and caveolin-1 when compared to rats fed with standard diet.

By contrast, the expression of eNOS, calmodulin and phosphorylated Akt in rats fed with western diet were similar to rats fed with standard diet.

Taken together, these events indicate that EVNol supplementation promotes significantly better vascular functions by promoting NO-mediated endothelium relaxation via increased or decreased protein expressions.

“Back in 2008, Rasool and team demonstrated that two months supplementation of 50, 100 and 200mg of EVNol SupraBio (bio-enhanced palm tocotrienol/ tocopherol complex) among healthy human subjects promoted arterial compliance by reducing both pulse wave velocity and augmentation index values,” says CheeYen Lau, Nutritionist of ExcelVite.

“And now once again, this particular study conducted at the RMIT University in Australia shows that EVNol (natural full spectrum palm tocotrienol/ tocopherol complex) has acute protective effects of endothelial functions in the presence of oxidative stress.”

“While the study was carried out with rats, it can be postulated that a daily dose of 155mg EVNol (the human equivalent dose for a 60-kg adult) could potentially mitigate obesity-induced oxidative stress-associated vascular endothelial impairment.”

“Hence, EVNol and EVNol SupraBio may be beneficial for supporting heart health by promoting endothelium relaxation and arterial compliance.”