Rissanen Tiina, Voutilainen Sari, Nyyssönen Kristiina, Salonen Jukka T
Research Institute of Public Health, University of Kuopio, Kuopio, Finland 70211.
Exp Biol Med (Maywood). 2002 Nov;227(10):900-7. doi: 10.1177/153537020222701010.
Diets rich in fruits and vegetables containing carotenoids have been of interest because of their potential health benefit against chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and cancer. Interest particularly in lycopene is growing rapidly following the recent publication of epidemiological studies that have associated high lycopene levels with reductions in CVD incidence. Two studies were conducted. In the first one, we examined the role of lycopene as a risk-lowering factor with regard to acute coronary events and stroke in the prospective Kuopio Ischemic Heart Disease Risk Factor (KIHD) Study. The subjects were 725 middle-aged men free of coronary heart disease and stroke at the study baseline. In a Cox's proportional hazards' model adjusting for covariates, men in the lowest quartile of serum levels of lycopene had a 3.3-fold (P < 0.001) risk of the acute coronary event or stroke as compared with others. In the second study, we assessed the association between plasma concentration of lycopene and intima-media thickness of the common carotid artery wall (CCA-IMT) in a cross-sectional analysis of the Antioxidant Supplementation in the Atherosclerosis Prevention (ASAP) study data in 520 asymptomatic men and women. In a covariance analysis adjusting for common cardiovascular risk factors, low plasma levels of lycopene were associated with an 18% increase of IMT in men as compared with men in whom plasma levels were higher than median (P = 0.003 for difference). In women, the difference did not remain significant after the adjustments. On the basis of these works, it is evident that the circulating levels of lycopene play some role with regard to cardiovascular health in Finland, at least in men. We conclude that circulating levels of lycopene, a biomarker of tomato-rich food, may play a role in early stages of atherogenesis and may have clinical and public health relevance.
富含类胡萝卜素的水果和蔬菜的饮食一直备受关注，因为它们对心血管疾病（CVD）和癌症等慢性疾病具有潜在的健康益处。尤其是在最近发表的流行病学研究将高番茄红素水平与CVD发病率降低联系起来之后，对番茄红素的兴趣迅速增长。我们进行了两项研究。在第一项研究中，我们在前瞻性的库奥皮奥缺血性心脏病危险因素（KIHD）研究中，研究了番茄红素作为降低急性冠状动脉事件和中风风险因素的作用。研究对象是725名在研究基线时无冠心病和中风的中年男性。在调整协变量的Cox比例风险模型中，血清番茄红素水平处于最低四分位数的男性发生急性冠状动脉事件或中风的风险是其他人的3.3倍（P < 0.001）。在第二项研究中，我们在对520名无症状男性和女性的动脉粥样硬化预防抗氧化剂补充（ASAP）研究数据进行横断面分析时，评估了番茄红素的血浆浓度与颈总动脉壁内膜中层厚度（CCA-IMT）之间的关联。在调整常见心血管危险因素的协方差分析中，与血浆水平高于中位数的男性相比，血浆番茄红素水平低的男性IMT增加了18%（差异P = 0.003）。在女性中，调整后差异不再显著。基于这些研究，很明显，至少在芬兰男性中，番茄红素的循环水平在心血管健康方面发挥了一定作用。我们得出结论，番茄红素的循环水平作为富含番茄食物的生物标志物，可能在动脉粥样硬化的早期阶段发挥作用，并且可能具有临床和公共卫生意义。
