Advances in the Prevention of Cardiovascular Diseases by Phytosterol

Cardiovascular diseases, mainly atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease, are crucial causes for worldwide morbidity and mortality. Unhealthy lifestyle and diet with high low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol level are the major risk factors. Preventions of CVDs need to be taken early in age by changing to more phytosterol-enriched diet. Phytosterol is plant-derived compound with similar structure and function as cholesterol, but when supplied with food, it can lower the serum cholesterol concentration. Studies recommend the daily intake of 2g to 2.5g supplement of phytosterol can significantly reduce plasma LDL-cholesterol level. There are many researches on the mechanisms of cholesterol-lowering effect of plant sterol and plant stanol. It has been found that the differences in solubility and hydrophobicity enable phytosterol to intervene cholesterol from incorporating into micelles and to co-precipitate with cholesterol into solid crystals in intestinal lumen and reduce the absorption of cholesterol. Phytosterol also promotes the transporter gene expression to increase the cholesterol excretion back into small intestine. Furthermore, phytosterol also affects cholesterol metabolism and its transport in blood stream. Therefore, food enriched with phytosterol can be an efficient and safe method of preventing CVDs.