Effects of pectin from carnauba (copernicia prunifera) fruits on the activity liver gene expression of key proteins involved in lipid metabolism in apoe knockout mice fed a high-fat diet

Pectin is a polysaccharide that has an important hypolipidemic potential. However, pectin isolated from carnauba fruits (Copernicia prunifera) has never been evaluated in in vivo models of dyslipidemia. Thus, we evaluated for the first time itsin vitro and hypolipidemic effects in ApoE-/- mice fed a high fat diet (HFD). The treatment with pectin (150 and 300 mg/kg/day) reduced significantly of total cholesterol, LDL-C, glycemia, liver AST and lipid peroxidation, as well as induced downregulation of hepatic HMGCR transcription, a key enzyme for the synthesis cholesterol. In addition, pectin did not alter renal or hepatic functions in mice, confirmed by the absence of cytotoxicity tested by the MTT model. Thus, pectin supplementation extracted from carnauba showed hypolipidemic effects, without causing noticed adverse effects. Altogether our findings support this bioproduct with potential therapeutic usefor dyslipidemia.