Transgenic zero-erucic and high-oleic mustard oil improves glucose clearance rate, erythrocyte membrane docosahexaenoic acid content and reduces osmotic fragility of erythrocytes in male Syrian golden hamsters

Abstract

Brassica juncea, the Indian mustard variety has high erucic acid (22:1 n-9) in its oil, which causes several deleterious effects. The Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants (India) has developed a zero-erucic and high-oleic acid transgenic mustard variety having 67% oleic acid, which is almost equivalent to that of olive oil, i.e. 71%. Therefore, we assessed its impact on erythrocyte osmotic fragility, fluidity and activities of membrane-bound enzymes and insulin sensitivity. 40 male Syrian golden hamsters of 6–8 weeks age, were divided into five groups, consisting of 8 hamsters in each and fed diet containing any one of the oils, i.e. groundnut (GNO), conventional mustard (OCM), low-erucic mustard (OLM), zero-erucic high-oleic transgenic mustard (OTM) and olive (OLO) at 10% level for 16 weeks. At the end, compared to OLO group, OTM-fed hamsters resisted osmotic shock-induced erythrocyte-haemolysis, which corroborated with higher docosahexaenoic acid (DHA; 22:6 n-3) levels in their erythrocyte membranes. However, it did affect neither the fluidity nor the activities of membrane-bound enzymes. Although fasting plasma glucose, insulin and free fatty acid levels were comparable among the various groups; during glucose challenge, OTM diet-fed animals displayed higher disposal rate of circulatory glucose, without altering the insulin levels, when compared to the conventional mustard; OCM. In conclusion, the consumption of oil from zero-erucic high-oleic transgenic mustard improved the DHA content of erythrocyte membrane, which possibly resisted haemolysis and enhanced glucose clearance during glucose overload. However, it did not affect the activities of erythrocyte membrane-bound enzymes and fluidity compared to olive oil.