The innovative “Spread Bio-Oil” prevents metabolic disorders and mediates pre-conditioning-like cardioprotection in rats

Abstract Background and Aims Obesity is often associated with an increased cardiovascular risk. Food industry and research are constantly working to formulate products that are a perfect mix between an adequate fat content and health. We evaluated whether a diet enriched with Spread Bio-Oil (SD), an olive oil-based innovative food, is cardioprotective in the presence of high fat diet (HFD)-dependent obesity. Methods Rats were fed for 16 weeks with normolipidic diet (ND; fat:6.2%), HFD (fat:42%), ND enriched with SD (6.2% of Fat+35.8% of SD). Metabolic and anthropometric parameters were measured. Heart and liver structures were analysed by histochemistry. Ischemic susceptibility was evaluated on isolated and Langendorff perfused cardiac preparations. Signalling was assessed by Western Blotting. Results Compared to ND rats, HFD rats showed increased body weight and abdominal obesity, dyslipidemia, impaired glucose tolerance. Morphological analyses showed that HFD is associated to heart and liver modifications (hypertrophy and steatosis, respectively), lesser evident in the SD group, together with metabolic and anthropometric alterations. In particular, IGF-1R immunodetection revealed a reduction of hypertrophy in SD heart. Notably, SD diet significantly reduced myocardial susceptibility against Ischemia/Reperfusion with respect to HFD through activation of survival signals (Akt, ERK1/2, Bcl2). Systolic and diastolic performance was preserved in SD. Conclusions We suggest that SD may contribute to prevent metabolic disorders and cardiovascular alterations typical of severe obesity induced by a HFD, including the increased ischemic susceptibility of the myocardium. Our results pave the way to evaluate the introduction of SD in human alimentary guidelines as a strategy to reduce saturated fat intake.