ABSTRACT
UNLABELLED: Magnesium supplementation is quite popular because of intention of health and healthy lifestyle. However, there is no information on the metabolic effects of magnesium supplementation in healthy people and in different diseases. AIMS: Authors examined the effects of magnesium-malate on calcium, magnesium levels, and antioxidant parameters in normolipidemic and hyperlipidemic rats. METHODS: Male Wistar rats (n = 40; 150-200 g) were divided into 4 groups (control, control-treated, hyperlipidemic, hyperlipidemic-treated). Rats in the control and control-treated groups were fed with normal diet, while hyperlipidemic and hyperlipidemic-treated groups were fed with fat rich diet (2% cholesterol, 20% sunflower oil, 0.5% cholic acid). After the 9-day-long diet the following parameters were measured: routine laboratory parameters with automatic analysator, metal content using ICP-OES, and redox-parameters using spectrophotometric and luminometric methods. RESULTS: Magnesium-malate failed to produce significant changes in the measured parameters in control animals in most cases. Magnesium-malate decreased significantly serum glucose concentration, alkaline phosphatase and amylase activities in the hyperlipidemic group. Significantly low induced chemiluminescent activity was measured in the plasma and erythrocytes of hyperlipidemic group. The magnesium supplementation did not increase significantly magnesium concentration in different organs although the calcium/magnesium concentration ratio was decreased. CONCLUSIONS: In control animals there was no significant change in the measured parameters in most cases after dietary supplementation with a large amount of magnesium for a short period of time, but magnesium supplementation affected the metal homeostasis, routine laboratory parameters and redox system in hyperlipidemic animals. Although several changes were favorable, it should be emphasized that magnesium supplementation must be applied watchfully particularly in metabolic diseases.
