Effects of pistachio nuts consumption on plasma lipid profile and oxidative status in healthy volunteers.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Effects of pistachio nuts consumption on plasma lipid profile and oxidative status were investigated in healthy volunteers with normal lipid levels. METHODS AND RESULTS: The study was conducted in 24 healthy men and 20 healthy women. All subjects consumed their regular diets during a 1-week period. After this period, half of the subjects (12 men and 10 women, mean age 32.8 +/- 6.7 years) were randomized to a regular diet group and the other half (12 men and 10 women, mean age 33.4 +/- 7.2 years) were randomized to a pistachio group which involved substituting pistachio nuts for 20% of their daily caloric intake for 3 weeks. Plasma total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), triglyceride, malondialdehyde (MDA) and antioxidant potential (AOP) were measured before and after the dietary modification from all the subjects. After 3 weeks, with the pistachio diet, the mean plasma total cholesterol, MDA levels and, total cholesterol/HDL and LDL/HDL ratios were found to be significantly decreased (P < 0.05, P < 0.05, P < 0.001 and P < 0.01, respectively); on the contrary, HDL and AOP levels, and AOP/MDA ratios were significantly increased (P < 0.001, P < 0.05 and P < 0.01, respectively). Triglyceride and LDL levels also decreased but this was not statistically significant (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: These results indicated that consumption of pistachio nuts decreased oxidative stress, and improved total cholesterol and HDL levels in healthy volunteers.

Relationship among manganese, arginase, and nitric oxide in childhood asthma.

It has been demonstrated that the lowest intakes of manganese (Mn) were associated with more than a fivefold increased risk of bronchial reactivity. It was also known that nitric oxide (NO) production was found to be significantly higher in asthmatics. There is a reciprocal pathway between arginase and nitric oxide synthase (NOS) for NO production, and Mn is required for arginase activity and stability. We investigated plasma NO, arginase, and its cofactor Mn levels to evaluate this reciprocal pathway in patients with childhood asthma. Arginase activities and Mn and NO levels were measured in plasma from 31 patients with childhood asthma and 22 healthy control subjects. Plasma arginase activities and Mn concentrations were found to be significantly lower and NO levels were significantly higher in patients with childhood asthma as compared to the control subjects. There was a significantly positive correlation between plasma Mn and arginase and negative correlations between arginase and NO values and Mn and NO values in patients with childhood asthma. These data indicate that the lower concentration of Mn could cause lower arginase activity and this could also upregulate NO production by increasing l-arginine content in patients with childhood asthma.