Casein atherosclerosis

Table I. Serum Lipids and Aortic Atherosclerosis in Rabbits fed Casein, Soy Protein, Casein Arginine, or Soy Lysine...

We have demonstrated that addition of lysine to soy protein causes a significant increase of serum cholesterol and development of atherosclerosis. Another approach to this question was to feed three proteins of animal origin that contained almost identical amounts of lysine but different amounts of arginine. We used fish protein (lysine, 6.81 arginine, 4.74 L/A ratio, 1.44), casein (lysine, 6.91 arginine, 3.65 L/A ratio, 1.89), and milk protein (lysine, 6.61 arginine, 2.71 L/A ratio, 2.44) (14). The proteins... 

Bergeron, N., and Jacques, H. 1989. Influence of fish protein as compared to casein and soy protein on serum and hver hpids, and serum lipoprotein cholesterol levels in the rabbit. Atherosclerosis, 78,113-121. 

Aihara, K., Ishii, H., Yoshida, M., 2009. Casein-derived tripeptide, Val-Pro-Pro (VPP), modulates monocyte adhesion to vascular endothelium. Journal of Atherosclerosis and Thromhosis 16, 594—603. 

Terpstra, A. H. M., van Tintelen, G., and West, C. E., 1982, The effects of semi-purified diets containing different proportions of either casein or soybean protein on the concentration of cholesterol in whole serum, serum lipoproteins and liver in male and female rats. Atherosclerosis 42 85. 

In our first experiment (33), we investigated the role of the fat present in chow. The standard diet contained 25 parts of Casein, 40 of dextrose, 5 of salt mix, 15 of cellulose, 1 of vitamin mix and 14 of hydrogenated coconut oil. Rabbit chow was extracted with ether-alcohol (1 1) and both the extract and residue were used. The diets and their designations are given in Table 1. The results (Table 2) show that the chow lipid did not affect cholesteremia or atherosclerosis and reaffirmed earlier findings that addition of coconut oil to chow does not affect atherosclerosis. 

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