Impact of low and high molecular weight oat beta-glucan on oxidative stress and antioxidant defense in spleen of rats with LPS induced enteritis

Food hydrocolloids impact on human health is usually associated with positive interaction within gastrointestinal track and connected immune response. One of the most underestimated organs which reflect pathological changes appearing systemically is spleen. Acting not only as blood storage but as active organ the spleen play an important role in innate immunity which can be stimulated by alimentary treatment of immune active food hydrocolloids. Two oat beta-glucan purified preparations with high (2,179,700 g/mol) and low (69,700 g/mol) molecular weight were prepared and their antioxidant, free radical scavenging activity, the ability to alleviate inflammatory conditions and protective properties against severe oxidant induced lipid peroxidation were evaluated. This study was performed on rats, divided into 3 groups: fed control diet and diet supplemented with small molecular mass and large molecular mass oat beta-glucans. Within groups animals were divided into controls and individuals with experimentally induced intestinal inflammation. Low molecular weight beta-glucan diet supplementation effectively decreased oxidative stress parameters in the control groups. The supplementation with high molecular weight beta-glucan in animals with inflammation decreases lipid superoxides, 7-ketocholesterol concentration and GSSG activity in rat spleens. In conclusion, beta-glucan possesses antioxidant properties as manifested by a reduction in superoxide dismutase and reductase activity. This study also demonstrated that diet supplementation with beta-glucan improves stress oxidative parameters in the spleen. It is especially important in the case of rats with induced gut inflammation. The encouraging results obtained from our experiment enables the use of this food hydrocolloid to form food formulation with protecting health properties. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.