Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, School of Public Health, Peking University, 38 Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100191, China.
Atherosclerosis. 2011 Dec;219(2):789-93. doi: 10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2011.08.006. Epub 2011 Aug 10.
We investigated whether early atherosclerosis before calcified plaque appeared as assessed by carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) was associated with levels of the major carotenoids, and assessed the associations among these serum carotenoids, carotid IMT, and arterial stiffness.
The case-control study comprised 125 subjects with early atherosclerosis and 107 controls aged 45-68 years. We simultaneously measured common carotid IMT and arterial stiffness by carotid ultrasonography, and serum carotenoids were determined by high-pressure liquid chromatograph (HPLC).
In cases of early atherosclerosis, serum level of lutein was significantly lower than that in controls. Serum lutein was inversely associated with carotid IMT. Zeaxanthin and β-carotene were both negatively correlated with right common carotid artery stiffness β, elastic modulus (E(p)), and pulse wave velocity (PWV). After adjusting for age and gender, the associations remain significantly (P<0.05). However, there is no significant difference for zeaxanthin and β-carotene between the cases and controls.
These findings suggest that lutein may play a protective role in the prevention of early atherosclerosis, and the associations between serum carotenoids and arterial stiffness remained to be investigated.
我们研究了颈动脉内膜中层厚度（IMT）评估的早期动脉粥样硬化（在出现钙化斑块之前）与主要类胡萝卜素水平之间的关系，并评估了这些血清类胡萝卜素、颈动脉 IMT 和动脉僵硬度之间的关系。
本病例对照研究包括 125 例早期动脉粥样硬化患者和 107 例年龄在 45-68 岁的对照组。我们通过颈动脉超声同时测量颈总动脉 IMT 和动脉僵硬度，并用高效液相色谱法（HPLC）测定血清类胡萝卜素。
在早期动脉粥样硬化患者中，血清叶黄素水平明显低于对照组。血清叶黄素与颈动脉 IMT 呈负相关。玉米黄质和β-胡萝卜素均与右颈总动脉僵硬度β、弹性模量（E（p））和脉搏波速度（PWV）呈负相关。调整年龄和性别后，相关性仍然显著（P<0.05）。然而，玉米黄质和β-胡萝卜素在病例组和对照组之间没有显著差异。
这些发现表明叶黄素可能在预防早期动脉粥样硬化中发挥保护作用，而血清类胡萝卜素与动脉僵硬度之间的关系仍有待进一步研究。
