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Nutrition and Disease

Administration of Minor Polar Compound-Enriched Extra Virgin Olive Oil Decreases Platelet Aggregation and the Plasma Concentration of Reduced Homocysteine in Rats^1,2

³ Department of Neuroscience, Pharmacology Unit, University of Siena, 53100 Siena, Italy; ⁴ Department of Pharmaceutical Science, University of Florence, 50019 Sesto F.no, Florence, Italy; ⁵ Department of Experimental Medicine and Pathology, University La Sapienza, 00100 Rome, Italy; and ⁶ Centre for Biotechnology Development and Biodiversity Research, University of Sassari, 07100 Sassari, Italy

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: disimplicio{at}unisi.it.

We investigated the effect of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) on platelet aggregation and plasma concentrations of homocysteine (Hcy) redox forms in rats in relation to the minor polar compound (MPC) concentration of EVOO. We used 3 olive oil samples with similar fatty acid but different MPC concentrations: refined olive oil (RF) with traces of MPC (control oil), native EVOO with low MPC concentration (LC), and EVOO with high MPC concentration (HC) enriching LC with its own MPC. Oil samples were administered to rats by gavage (1.25 mL/kg body weight) using 2 experimental designs: acute (24-h food deprivation and killed 1 h after EVOO administration) and subacute (12-d treatment, a daily dose of oil for 12 d, and killed after 24 h of food deprivation). Platelet aggregation was induced by ADP (ex vivo tests) and a reduction in platelet reactivity occurred in cells from rats given LC in the subacute study and in cells from rats administered HC in both studies as indicated by an increase in the agonist half maximal effective concentration. HC inhibited platelet aggregation induced by low ADP doses (reversible aggregation) in cells of rats in both the acute and subacute studies, whereas LC had this effect only in the subacute experiment. Moreover, in rats administered HC in both experiments, the plasma concentration of free reduced Hcy (rHcy) was lower and Hcy bound to protein by disulfide bonds (bHcy) was greater than in RF-treated rats. bHcy was also greater in rats given LC than in RF-treated rats in the subacute experiment. Plasma free-oxidized Hcy was greater in rats given LC and HC than in those administered RF only in the subacute experiment. In conclusion, these results show that MPC in EVOO inhibit platelet aggregation and reduce the plasma rHcy concentration, effects that may be associated with cardiovascular protection.