Effects of Lutein Supplementation on Subclinical Atherosclerosis

This study is to investigate the possible positive effects of lutein and lycopene supplementation on early atherosclerosis in Beijing.

Atherosclerosis is the primary cause of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, both of which are the top two causes of death in industrialized countries including China. Lutein was found to be protective against atherosclerosis in some case control studies. However, the intervention on atherosclerosis have not been reported. In the present study, 192 subjects were randomly assigned to four groups treated with different amounts of lutein. The investigators observe the changes of serum lutein concentration by hyper-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC), and compare the differences of common carotid IMT and arterial stiffness by carotid ultrasonography before and after the intervention. Serum biochemistry indexes including cholesterol (CHO), triglyceride (TG), high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C), low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) and glucose (Glu) were measured at 0, 7 and 12 months of treatment by auto-analyzer.