Previous work has shown that dietary flaxseed can significantly reduce cardiac damage from a coronary artery ligation-induced myocardial infarction. However, this model uses healthy animals and the ligation creates the infarct in an artificial manner. The purpose of this study was to determine if dietary flaxseed can protect the hearts of JCR:LA-cp rats, a model of genetic obesity and metabolic syndrome, from naturally occurring myocardial ischemic lesions. Male and female obese rats were randomized into four groups (n = 8 each) to receive, for 12 weeks, either a) control diet (Con), b) control diet supplemented with 10% ground flaxseed (CFlax), c) a high-fat, high sucrose (HFHS) diet, or d) HFHS supplemented with 10% ground flaxseed (HFlax). Male and female JCR:LA-cp lean rats served as genetic controls and received similar dietary interventions. In male obese rats, serum total cholesterol and LDL-C were significantly lower in CFlax compared to Con. Obese rats on HFHS exhibited increased myocardial ischemic lesions and diastolic dysfunction regardless of sex. HFlax significantly lowered the frequency of cardiac lesions and improved diastolic function in male and female obese rats compared to HFHS. Blood pressures were similar in obese and lean rats. No aortic atherosclerotic lesions were detectable in any group. Collectively, this study shows that a HFHS diet increased myocardial ischemic lesion frequency and abolished the protective effect of female sex on cardiac function. More importantly, the data demonstrates dietary flaxseed protected against the development of small spontaneous cardiac infarcts despite the ingestion of a HFHS diet and the presence of morbid obesity.

以前的研究表明，食用亚麻籽可以显着减少冠状动脉结扎引起的心肌梗塞引起的心脏损伤。然而，该模型使用健康动物，结扎以人工方式造成梗塞。本研究的目的是确定膳食亚麻籽是否可以保护 JCR:LA- cp大鼠（一种遗传性肥胖和代谢综合征模型）的心脏免受自然发生的心肌缺血损伤。雄性和雌性肥胖大鼠被随机分为四组（每组n  = 8），在 12 周内接受 a) 对照饮食 (Con)，b) 补充有 10% 亚麻籽粉 (CFlax) 的对照饮食，c) 高-脂肪、高蔗糖 (HFHS) 饮食，或 d) HFHS 补充 10% 磨碎的亚麻籽 (HFlax)。男女JCR：LA- cp瘦老鼠作为遗传对照，并接受了类似的饮食干预。在雄性肥胖大鼠中，与 Con 相比，CFlax 的血清总胆固醇和 LDL-C 显着降低。HFHS 肥胖大鼠无论性别如何，都表现出增加的心肌缺血性病变和舒张功能障碍。与 HFHS 相比，HFlax 显着降低了雄性和雌性肥胖大鼠的心脏损伤频率并改善了舒张功能。肥胖大鼠和瘦大鼠的血压相似。在任何组中均未检测到主动脉粥样硬化病变。总的来说，这项研究表明，HFHS 饮食增加了心肌缺血损伤的频率，并消除了女性对心脏功能的保护作用。更重要的是，