New tomatoes to remove bad cholesterol.

A team of scientists from the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), genetically modified tomatoes obtained eliminating bad cholesterol.

The team of doctors Alan M. Fogelman (director of the research unit of atherosclerosis in the David Geffen School of Medicine) y Srinavasa T. Reddy (specialist medical pharmacology), tomatoes achieved producing a peptide, to eating them, eliminates bad cholesterol, emulating the actions of good cholesterol (HDL cholesterol, high density lipoproteins), which it is known for its role in the arteries to remove bad cholesterol (LDL cholesterol, of low density lipoproteins).

Scientists prepared by genetic engineering and tomatoes cited, in ground form and lyophilized, They added to the rich fat diet, typical of humans in industrialized nations, with which was fed to mice that did not have the ability to remove bad cholesterol from your blood and, relentlessly, developed inflammation and atherosclerosis when consuming a fat diet.

The researchers found that mice who ate the tomatoes enriched with the peptide, which they accounted for 2,2 percent of their high fat diet, They had significantly less accumulation of atherosclerotic plaque, lower levels of inflammation, increased activity of an antioxidant enzyme associated with good cholesterol, higher levels of good cholesterol, and lower levels of acid tumor promoter that accelerates the buildup of plaque in the arteries of animal models.

Several hours after they finished eating mice, the intact peptide was detected in the small intestine, but he was not found and blood.

According to researchers, this is an indication that the strong peptide acts in the small intestine and then is degraded to natural amino acids before being absorbed into the blood, as with other peptides and proteins tomato.

This suggests that choosing targeting the small intestine may be a new strategy to prevent atherosclerosis foodborne, which is a caused by disease plaques in the arteries that can lead to heart attacks and strokes.

In addition to the scientists mentioned UCLA, in research and development also involved other of the university as well as Alabama in the US city of Birmingham.