Dietary protein and blood pressure.

Vegetarians have lower blood pressures than omnivores. Dietary protein may be partly responsible. Human volunteers, whose normal diet contained little soya protein, were given soya based foods to replace some of the meat in their diet. During this period over 20% of the total protein intake was derived from soya, however blood pressures remained unchanged. Rabbits were given diets based on either soya, casein, or fish protein. The animals' diets were then changed to one of the other protein sources. During the subsequent 3 weeks, small increases in blood pressure were seen in the casein and soya groups. When rabbits were given fat enriched diets, blood pressures rose but the increase was independent of the type of protein in the diet. It is concluded that the type of protein consumed is unlikely to account for the blood pressure differences between vegetarians and omnivores. Arguments are presented suggesting that other dietary components, such as fat or fibre may be responsible.

The effect of polyunsaturated fatty acids on the n-3 and n-6 series on platelet aggregation and platelet and aortic fatty acid composition in rabbits.

Four groups of 6 New Zealand white rabbits were fed for 60 days on a commercial rabbit diet supplemented (60 g/kg) with 1 of 4 sources of fat: corn oil, linseed oil and fish oil, which respectively provided rich sources of linoleic acid (C18:2, n-6), alpha-linolenic acid (C18:3, n-3) and eicosapentaenoic acid (C20:5, n-3), and coconut oil, low in all polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). Platelet-rich plasma was prepared and aggregation induced by ADP (final concentration 0.29-74.3 microM), collagen (2.5-20 micrograms/400 microliters, final concentration) and 2.5 U bovine thrombin, and recorded with a Peyton aggregometer. Platelet aggregation induced by both thrombin and collagen was significantly lower with either n-3 PUFA (fish or linseed oil) than with corn oil (n-6 PUFA) or the low PUFA coconut oil. ADP-induced platelet aggregation was significantly reduced only in animals fed fish-oil. Changes in platelet aggregation were accompanied by increased platelet lipid content of C20:5, n-3 and decreased content of C20:4, n-6, with little change in platelet total C20 fatty acids. Platelet levels of C20:5, n-3 were significantly increased with both the preformed C20:5, n-3 and its precursor C18:3, n-3 in the diet. However, aortic lipid accumulation of C20:5 only occurred with rabbits fed on fish oil. It was concluded that, for collagen and thrombin induced aggregation, C18:3, n-3 and C20:5, n-3 were equally antiaggregatory in rabbits. The implications of this in community nutrition programmes are discussed.