Abstract

The present study was conducted to investigate the changes in iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) levels in lung and kidney tissues of rabbits fed high fat diet supplemented with cholesterol (HFD+CHO) for 12 weeks. Twenty male rabbits (New Zealand White) were individually caged and divided into two groups. The control group was fed a normal rabbit diet (NOR). The HFD+CHO group received normal diet supplemented with 1.0% of olive oil and 1.0% of cholesterol. The lung and kidney tissue samples from the control and HDF+CHO rabbits were analysed for Fe and Zn concentrations using atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS). Compared with the control animals the Fe concentration in HDF+CHO rabbits was significantly (p < 0.05) larger in both types of tissue, with percentage normalized changes of 95.29% for lungs and 7.08% for kidneys. The concentration of Zn in lung tissue was decreased, with percentage normalized change of 3.61%, and was significantly (p < 0.05) lower, with percentage normalized change of 71.40% in kidneys of HFD+CHO rabbits in comparison with the control (NOR) animals. The results showed that the high concentration of Fe in lungs was accompanied by the low concentration of Zn, while the high concentration of Zn in kidneys was accompanied by the low concentration of Fe. This suggests that the increase in iron concentrations in lung and kidney tissues may accelerate atherosclerosis probably through the production of free radicals which promote the production of oxidative parameters and that inducing anemia in HFD rabbits may delay or inhibit the progression of atherosclerosis. This also implies that zinc may be highly excreted from kidneys, which can be seen as an important risk factor and that using Zn-supplemented diets may retard and/or prevent the progression of atherosclerosis probably by reducing lesion Fe content, intracellular and extracellular lipids in the intima, connective tissue formation and smooth muscleproliferation.

Key words: HDF+CHO, Zn-supplemented diets, connective tissue formation, smooth muscle proliferation.