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Researchers now rec­og­nize that car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­ease (CVD) is acti­vated and dri­ven by a state of low-grade chronic inflam­ma­tion in the body. As a result of inflam­ma­tion, CVD is thought to be ini­ti­ated by platelet-depen­dent processes.

Platelet aggre­ga­tion is a process whereby blood platelets (cells) adhere to each other to form clots in rela­tion to injury in the body. Platelet aggre­ga­tion also occurs at sites of vas­cu­lar injury. For exam­ple, in response to injury and inflam­ma­tion in arter­ies. In rela­tion to CVD, reduc­ing platelet aggre­ga­tion is impor­tant because it can result in abnor­mal clot­ting that can increase the risk of heart attack and stroke.
See Also: Olive Oil Health Benefits
Oxylipin pro­duc­tion relates to oxy­genated lipids — eicosanoids such as prostaglandins (cyclooxygenase‑1 (COX‑1) and cyclooxygenase‑2 (COX‑2) and leukotriene — in the body involved in mod­u­lat­ing and reg­u­lat­ing immune responses, includ­ing immune responses caused by inflammation.

Extra vir­gin olive oil (EVOO) con­tains more than 36 phe­no­lic com­pounds. Although all of the phe­no­lic com­pounds in EVOO have known ben­e­fi­cial effects, a recent study, co-spon­sored by Gaea and the Captain Vassilis Foundation, in coop­er­a­tion with the University of California, Davis and the US Department of Agriculture, shows that the health ben­e­fits pro­vided by EVOO may be influ­enced by the type and the qual­i­ties each indi­vid­ual EVOO vari­ety provides. 

In the study, spe­cific EVOO sam­ples were screened to iden­tify sam­ples high in oleo­can­thal, olea­cein, oleu­ropeinagly­con and ligstrosideaglcon polyphenols. 

The EVOO sam­ples were selected from super­mar­ket ranges and final sam­ples cho­sen included ​“an oil of Mediterranean ori­gin obtained from a super­mar­ket in California (Oil A), an Arbequina vari­ety oil pro­vided by Corto Company from California (Oil B), and a Koroneiki vari­ety oil from Kalamata, Greece (Oil C).” All oils were matched in total polyphe­nol con­tent but con­tained dif­fer­ing lev­els of oleo­can­thal, olea­cein and tyrosol. Oil A higher in tyrosol, Oil B higher in olea­cein, and Oil C higher in oleocanthal.

Nine healthy males par­tic­i­pated in the ran­dom­ized, blinded, con­trolled crossover design study and were instructed to con­sume 40 mL of the three EVOO sam­ples on three con­sec­u­tive vis­its, with a con­trol sam­ple of Ibuprofen (400 mg) pro­vided on the fourth visit.

Blood sam­ples were col­lected imme­di­ately before and two hours after con­sump­tion of the EVOO sam­ples or Ibuprofen. Platelet-rich blood sam­ples were stim­u­lated and sub­jected to aggre­gom­e­try and ana­lyzed for platelet responses and reduc­tion of COX-depen­dent oxylipins.

The results show that Oils B, C and Ibuprofen decrease platelet aggre­ga­tion. Ibuprofen was the only inter­ven­tion to sig­nif­i­cantly decrease oxylipin con­cen­tra­tions. Rather than total phe­no­lic con­tent being of inter­est, the authors con­clude that the phe­no­lic com­po­si­tion of EVOO influ­ences col­la­gen-stim­u­lated platelet activity. 

Inhibition of platelet aggre­ga­tion and oxylipin pro­duc­tion is cor­re­lated with con­sump­tion dose of oleo­can­thal, olea­cein and tyrosol per mg/kg weight. Though, in Oil C both platelet aggre­ga­tion and oxylipin were sig­nif­i­cantly cor­re­lated, which was not the case with other oils and indi­cates that oleo­can­thal influ­ences platelet aggre­ga­tion more sig­nif­i­cantly than the other oils, while olea­cein appears to be a more potent effec­tor of oxylipin production. 

So, while oleo­can­thal does appear to have the great­est impact, olea­cein and tyrosol con­tribute to the effects in a less potent manner.

Previous stud­ies have shown that oleo­can­thal exhibits the same anti-inflam­ma­tory response in the body as NSAID Ibuprofen, act­ing down the exact same path­ways as a non-steroidal anti-inflam­ma­tory at approx­i­mately 10 per­cent the potency. Oleocanthal has been shown to stop the inflam­ma­tory cas­cade by inhibit­ing both COX‑1 and COX‑2 inflam­ma­tory enzymes in a dose-depen­dent manner.

But inter­est­ingly, this new study shows that the effects of EVOO on platelet aggre­ga­tion have no rela­tion to COX inhi­bi­tion, ​“sug­gest­ing an upstream effect pos­si­bly asso­ci­ated with cal­cium mobi­liza­tion or block­ade of the phys­i­cal aggre­ga­tion process.”

The researchers sug­gest we now need fur­ther research in this area to con­firm these find­ings and con­sider ​“time course, dose-response, and a greater vari­ety of source oils to deter­mine the opti­mal dose.”

• International Journal of Molecular Science 


• Gaea and The Captain Vassilis Foundation