Resveratrol mitigates hypercholesterolemia exacerbated hyperthermia in chronically heat-stressed rats

Hypercholesterolemia (HC) is the major leading cause of cardiovascular disease worldwide. Such atherogenic aberration deeply impacts blood circulation. Resveratrol (R) is a polyphenol that has received attention as a hypolipidemic, antioxidant, and vascular agility advocate. Efficient blood redistribution is a key element in mammalian thermoregulation. We hypothesized that R treatment may aid in mitigating hyperthermic responses under both acute and chronic heat stress (HS) conditions in HC male rats. All rats were initially fitted with miniaturized thermologgers to measure core body temperature (T ). With a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement, four groups were randomly allotted, in which half of the animals ingested an HC diet (C+), while the other half ingested a control (C-) diet, throughout the whole study duration of 35 days. Seven rats from each dietary treatment, however, received R (R+; 13 mg/kg BW/day), while the rest received normal saline (R-) for 5 continuous days. All animals were maintained at thermoneutrality (TN; ambient temperature; T =23.15±0.04°C) for a period of 30 continuous days (days 0-29). On day 29, an acute HS (HS; T =35.86±0.37°C; for 9 nocturnal h) was imposed. Then, from day 29, a chronic HS protocol (T =32.28±1.00°C) was maintained until the past day of the trial (day 34), after which blood samples were drawn for analyses of platelet (PL) count, total antioxidant activity (TAO), total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TGs), and lipid peroxidation (LP). Switching animals from TN to HS resulted in abrupt rises in T . The HC diet induced a significant (p