Effects of a dietary intervention with lacto-ovo- vegetarian and Mediterranean diets on apolipoproteins and inflammatory cytokines: results from the CARDIVEG study

Abstract

Abstract Background: Apolipoproteins have been recently proposed as novel marker of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. However, evidence regarding effects of diet on apolipoproteins is limited. Aim: To compare the effects of Mediterranean diet (MD) and lacto-ovo vegetarian diet (VD) on apolipoproteins and traditional CVD risk factors in subjects with low-to-moderate CVD risk. Methods: Fifty-two subjects (39F; 49.1±12.4 years), followed MD and VD for 3 months each. Medical and dietary information was collected at the baseline. Anthropometric parameters and blood samples were obtained at the beginning and the end of interventions. Results: MD and VD resulted in significant improvement in anthropometric and lipid profiles. Both diets led to a reduction in most of the inflammatory parameters. As for apolipoproteins, a significant change was observed for ApoC-I after VD (+24.4%; p=0.020). MD led to a negative correlation between ApoC-III and carbohydrates (R=-0.29; p=0.039) whereas VD between ApoD and saturated fats (R=- 0.38; p=0.006). A positive correlation emerged after VD between HDL and ApoD (R=0.33; p=0.017) and after MD between plasma triglycerides and ApoC-I (R=0.32; p=0.020) and ApoD (R=0.30; p=0.031). IL-17 resulted to be positively correlated with ApoB after MD (R=0.31; p=0.028) and with ApoC-III after VD (R=0.32; p=0.019). Subgroup analysis revealed positive effects on apolipoproteins from both diets, especially in women, individuals with >50 years or with <3 CVD risk factors. Conclusions: Both diets seem to improve CVD risk, however, MD showed a greater positive effect on apolipoproteins in some subgroups, thus suggesting how diet may influence new potential markers of CVD risk. Trial registration: registered at clinicaltrials.gov (identifier: NCT02641834) on December 2015.