Effects of Palm and Sunflower Oils on Serum Cholesterol and Fatty Liver in Rats

Abstract

Palm oil is a common cooking ingredient used in the commercial food industry as the second largest consumed vegetable oil in the world. Because of its lower cost and highly saturated nature, it usually maintains a solid form at room temperature and is used as a cheap substitute for butter. However, there has been a growing health concern about palm oil because of the link between dietary fats and coronary heart disease. Palm oil contains ∼49% saturated fat, a relatively high concentration compared with other vegetable oils. Consequently, high intakes of saturated fat from palm oil induce a larger increase in plasma concentrations of total cholesterol and low-density lipoproteins. In the present study, we examined the hyperlipidemia of palm oil and the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) using a rat model in comparison with sunflower oil with a relatively low level of saturated fat. On in vivo examination using Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats for 22 days, there were no significant differences in serum lipid levels, suggesting that palm oil may not cause hyperlipidemia and elevate CVD risk. However, liver samples obtained from SD rats fed with palm oil showed a lot of large lipid inclusions stained with the Oil Red O working solution, but not much lipid accumulation was observed in rats treated with sunflower oil. In addition, lipid accumulation in the mixed oil group fed the combination of palm and sunflower (1:1) oil was shown to be at an intermediary level between the palm oil group and sunflower oil group. Taken together, these results indicate that palm oil, a highly saturated form of vegetable oil, may induce dysfunction of the liver lipid metabolism before affecting serum lipid levels. On the other hand, sunflower oil, a highly unsaturated vegetable oil, was shown to be well metabolized in liver.

Inhibition of protein arginine methyltransferase 3 activity selectively impairs liver X receptor‐driven transcription of hepatic lipogenic genes in vivo

“…(2002). The mice received palm oil to further induce hepatic steatosis and ensure optimal stimulation of PRMT3 translocation to the nucleus (Chisholm et al ., 2003; Go et al ., 2015; Kim et al ., 2015a). To determine the effect of PRMT3 inhibition under these steatosis‐inducing conditions, mice were treated for 4 days with a total of three injections of SGC707 (30 mg·kg −1 ), which was the dose recommended for in vivo usage (Kaniskan et al ., 2015).…”

Effect of Locally Manufactured Niger Seed Oil on Lipid Profile Compared to Imported Palm and Sunflower Oils on Rat Models

“…There was also nonsignificant ( p > 0.05) increase in the level of HDL-c in rats fed with niger seed oil as compared to rats fed with sunflower oil. These observed results might be due to the high percentage of polyunsaturated fatty acid in sunflower oil compared to niger seed oil [ 21 , 34 ]. Polyunsaturated fatty acids have been reported to facilitate the transportation and utilization of lipids [ 34 ].…”

“…These observed results might be due to the high percentage of polyunsaturated fatty acid in sunflower oil compared to niger seed oil [ 21 , 34 ]. Polyunsaturated fatty acids have been reported to facilitate the transportation and utilization of lipids [ 34 ]. Studies reported that sunflower oil is very high in polyunsaturated fatty acid and low in saturated fatty acid contents.…”

Flaxseed oil in the context of a weight loss programme ameliorates fatty liver grade in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: a randomised double-blind controlled trial

“…As the control, we chose sunflower oil which has previously been used as a placebo in similar investigations on NAFLD patients (19) . In contrast to n-3 fatty acids, studies examining the effect of n-6 fatty acids on NAFLD are rather scarce but the available evidence has not yet shown either beneficial or detrimental effect of n-6 fatty acids on NAFLD (20) .…”