Archives of Pharmacal Research
- Volume 22 Issue 5
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- Pages.485-490
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- 1999
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- 0253-6269(pISSN)
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- 1976-3786(eISSN)
Stabilization of Rat Serum Proteins Following Oral Administration of Fish Oil
- Saso, Luciano (Department of Pharmacology of Natural Substances and General Physiology, University of Rome La Sapienza, Rome, Italy) ;
- Valentini, Giovanni (Department of Pharmacology of Natural Substances and General Physiology, University of Rome La Sapienza, Rome, Italy) ;
- Mattei, Eleonora (Department of Pharmacology of Natural Substances and General Physiology, University of Rome La Sapienza, Rome, Italy) ;
- Panzironi, Claudio (Department of Pharmacology of Natural Substances and General Physiology, University of Rome La Sapienza, Rome, Italy) ;
- Casini, Maria Luisa (Department of Pharmacology of Natural Substances and General Physiology, University of Rome La Sapienza, Rome, Italy) ;
- Grippa, Eleonora (Department of Pharmacology of Natural Substances and General Physiology, University of Rome La Sapienza, Rome, Italy) ;
- Silvestrini, Bruno (Department of Pharmacology of Natural Substances and General Physiology, University of Rome La Sapienza, Rome, Italy)
- Published : 1999.10.01
Abstract
The mechanism of action of fish oil (FO), currently used in different chronic inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), is not completely understood, although it is thought that it could alter the metabolism of endogenous autacoids. In addition, we hypothesized that the known capability of fatty acids (FA) of stabilizing serum albumin and perhaps other proteins, may be of pharmacological relevance considering that it is shared by other anti-rheumatic agents (e.g. nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs). Thus, we studied the effect of oral administration of FO and corn oil (CO), a vegetable oil with a different composition, on the stability of rat serum proteins, evaluated buy a classical in vitro method based on heat-induced protein denaturation. FO, and, to a lower extent, CO inhibited heat-induced denaturation of rat serum (RS): based on the inhibitory activity (EC50) of the major fatty acids against heat-induced denaturation of RS in vitro, it was possible to speculate the in vivo effects of palmitic acid (C16:0) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, C20:5, n-3) may be more relevant than that of linolenic acid (C18:2). To better investigate this phenomenon, we extracted albumin from the serum of animals treated or not with FO with a one-step affinity chromatography technique, obtaining high purity rat serum albumin preparations (RSA-CTRL and RSA-FO), as judged by SDS-PAGE with Coomassie blue staining. When these RSA preparations were heated at