Flaxseed atherosclerosis

Prasad, K. 2005. Hypocholesterolemic and antiatherosclerotic effect of flax lignan complex isolated from flaxseed. Atherosclerosis 179, 269-275. 

Similar trends were observed in ovariectomized Syrian hamsters (Lucas et al., 2004). Flaxseed diets of 7.5%, 15%, or 22.5% for 120 days were able to prevent the rise in plasma cholesterol that was observed in the ovariectomized hamsters. Nearly 61% of the aorta contained fatty streaks in the ovariectomized hamsters, whereas the ovariectomized hamsters on the 7.5% and 22.5% flaxseed diets had aortic fatty streaks over 7.5% and 7.2% of the aorta, respectively (Lucas et al., 2004). This difference was nearly an 88% reduction in atherosclerosis compared to ovariectomized hamsters. 

Lucas, E.A., Lightfood, S.A., Hammond, L.J., Devareddy, L., Khalil, D.A., Daggy, B.P., Smith, B.J., Westcott, N., Mocanu, V., Soung, D.Y., and Arhnabdi, B.H. 2004. Flaxseed reduces plasma cholesterol and atherosclerotic lesion formation in ovarietomized golden Syrian hamsters. Atherosclerosis 173, 223-229. 

Prasad, K. 1999. Reduction of serum cholesterol and hypercholesterolemic atherosclerosis in rabbits by secoisolariciresinol diglucoside isolated from flaxseed. Circulation 99, 1355-1362. 

Prasad, K., Mantha, S.V., Muir, A.D., and Westcott, N.D. 1998. Reduction of hypercholesterolemic atherosclerosis by CDC-flaxseed with very low alpha-linolenic acid. Atherosclerosis 136, 367-375. Prasad, K., Mantha, S.V., Muir, A.D., and Westcott, N.D. 2000. Protective effect of secoisolariciresinol diglucoside against streptozotocin-induced diabetes and its mechanism. Mol. Cell. Bio-chem. 206, 141-150. 

Fuchs, D., Piller, R., Linseisen, J., Daniel, H., and Wenzel, U. 2007a. The human peripheral blood mononuclear cell proteome responds to a dietary flaxseed-intervention and proteins identified suggest a protective effect in atherosclerosis. Proteomics. 7 3278-3288. 

---