Petersen, Chrissa; Velaytham, Anandh; Saldivar, Miguel (University of Utah)
Faculty Advisor: Velayutham, Anandh (Integrative Physiology and Nutrition)
Aging is a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases such as atherosclerosis, which are major causes of disability and mortality in the elderly. Endothelial dysfunction plays a major role in aging-associated vascular complications. Dietary change may be one of the novel strategies to ameliorate endothelial dysfunction and aging-associated complications. Our lab recently showed that dietary supplementation of blueberries improves vascular inflammation and dysfunction in diabetic mice. In our present study, we investigated the effect of dietary blueberries on vascular function in aged mice. Adult male mice (two months old) and old male mice (17 months old) were fed a control rodent diet (Y and O respectively). The subgroups of Y and O mice were fed a diet supplemented with 3.8% freeze-dried blueberries (Y+BB, O+BB respectively) for 15 weeks. Based on normalization to body surface area, this dose in mice is equivalent to ~1.5 servings of blueberries (~240 g) in humans. Mesenteric arteries were collected and used to assess vascular function using a wire myograph system. After arteries were precontracted to ~65% of maximal phenylephrine-induced contraction and tension was stable, responses to acetylcholine (ACh, 10-8-10-6 M) were evaluated to determine endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation. In our study, there is no difference existed between Y vs. O and O vs. O+BB indicating the vascular function was similar among the groups. Our ongoing studies are focused on identifying the effect of dietary blueberries on vascular inflammation in aged mice and the possible molecular mechanisms involved.