Enzymatically Decomposed Antarctic Krill Oil Inhibits Atherosclerosis by Suppressing the Vascular Endothelial Inflammation

Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) oil has emerged as a potential alternative for omega-3 supplementation and that has been shown to reduce cardiovascular disease risk. However, all relevant current krill oil extraction methodologies generally use organic solvents which could leave solvent residues on the final product. Hence, we established a solvent-free method for the krill oil production by using proteases and evaluated the inhibitory effect of enzymatically decomposed krill oil (EDKO) on vascular endothelial inflammation and atherosclerotic plaque formation and its underlying mechanism. We investigated the effect of EDKO treatment on vascular inflammatory gene expression changes in vivo using partial carotid ligation and intimal endothelial-enriched total RNA extraction methods in C57BL/6 mice. In addition, the effect of EDKO dietary treatment on atherosclerosis development was examined by acuteand chronic-models of atherosclerosis in apolipoprotein E knockout (ApoE−/−) mice. Our results showed administration of EDKO by oral gavage down-regulated the proinflammatory genes (vascular cell adhesion protein 1, intercellular adhesion molecule 1, chitinase 3 like 1, and chemokine [C-C motif ] ligand 19) expression in arterial endothelium. Furthermore, we showed that dietary treatment of EDKO potently inhibited atherosclerotic plaque formation in both acuteand chronic model of atherosclerosis in ApoE−/− mice. Our findings suggest that dietary supplementation of EDKO provides anti-atherogenic benefits by inhibiting vascular inflammation through regulating pro-atherogenic and anti-atherogenic genes expression in arterial endothelium.