1.Therapeutic effects of Schistosoma mansoni soluble egg antigen in high fat diet induced dyslipidemia, hepatic and cardiovascular pathology in mice
Toulah, F.H. ; El-Aswad, B.E.W ; Harba, N.M. ; Naguib, Y.M.
Tropical Biomedicine 2018;35(4):893-907
High-fat diet (HFD) can cause hyperlipidemia, fatty liver and cardiovascular
disorders. Herein, we evaluated therapeutic effects and possible underlying mechanisms
of actions of Schistosoma mansoni soluble egg antigen (SEA) against experimental HFD
induced dyslipidemia, hepatic and cardiovascular pathology. Forty Swiss albino mice were
divided into four groups (10 each); mice fed standard diet (SD), mice fed HFD, mice fed
HFD for 8 weeks then infected by S. mansoni cercaria (HFD+I) and mice fed HFD for 8
weeks then treated with SEA (HFD+SEA), all mice were euthanized 16 weeks after starting
the experiment. HFD+SEA mice showed significantly (p<0.001) reduced total cholesterol
(TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and triglycerides (TG), and significantly
(p<0.05) increased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) comparing to HFD mice
with non-significant difference with HFD+I mice group. Doppler flowmetry showed
significantly (p<0.01) lower arterial resistance and significantly (p<0.05) higher blood
flow velocity in HFD+SEA and HFD+I mice groups than HFD mice. HFD+SEA mice revealed
improving in liver and aortic pathology and these were better than HFD+I mice group.
HFD+SEA and HFD+I mice groups had less myocardium lipid deposits, but still showing
some congested blood vessels. HFD myocardium revealed strong CD34+ expression on
immunohistochemistry study, while that of HFD+SEA showed weak and HFD+I mice had
moderate expressions. HFD+SEA mice had significantly (p<0.01) lower serum IL-1β and
vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and significantly (p<0.001) higher serum
transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-β1) and IL-10 than HFD mice with non-significant
difference with HFD+I mice. In conclusion, SEA lowered serum lipids, improved aortic
function, decreased liver and cardiovascular pathology in HFD mice, so, it is recommended
to purify active molecules from SEA to develop anti-dyslipidemic treatment.