Research Article
Meng GY, Rajion MA, Jafari
Abstract
Sixty male Sprague-Dawley rats aged six to seven months were allotted randomly into five groups of 12 animals each to evaluate the effects of mutton with altered fatty acid profiles on blood plasma lipid parameters and aortic intima changes. The five experimental diets were, the oil palm frond (OPF) meat pellet (from sheep fed 80% OPF+20% (% w/w) commercial concentrate), HAF meat pellet (from sheep fed 50% OPF+50% (% w/w) commercial concentrate), COC meat pellet (from sheep fed 100% commercial concentrate), COM meat pellet (prepared using commercially available mutton as its ingredient) and CON (standard rat chow pellet fed as the control group). The feeding trial lasted for 6 weeks. Blood and arterial tissue samples were obtained at two, four and six weeks after the onset of the trial. Results showed that COC increased the rat serum HDL-Cholesterol significantly (P<0.05) compared to CON group at different weeks of sampling. Conversely, CON had the highest triglyceride value among the treatments at 6th week of feeding. The results on arterial lesions were inconclusive. It is concluded that meat-based diets could raise serum HDL- Cholesterols in rats compared to a plant-based standard rat chow diet.