Paavo Roine

Histopathological changes in rats and pigs fed rapeseed oil

SummaryRats were fed diets in which rapeseed oil provided 0, 15, 30, 50 or 70 per cent of the calories. The controls were rats whose diet contained 30 or 70 cal. per cent of soybean oil. The diet containing 50 and especially that containing 70 per cent of rapeseed oil clearly retarded the growth of the animals. These groups also showed interstitial inflammatory changes in the myocardium. Similar changes were not found when 30 cal. per cent or less rapeseed oil was given. The histological changes were evidently produced by the rapeseed oil, since soybean oil even at the level of 70 cal. per cent produced no changes.In the pig experiments no histological difference was seen between the animals given 28 cal. per cent of rapeseed oil and the same amount of soybean oil. However, the pigs appeared to be in general more sensitive than rats to the high fat content of the diet, for all the examined pigs showed histological evidence of thyroid hyperfunction, interstitial myocarditis, and inflammatory reaction in the gastric mucosa.

The diet of Finnish Lapps

SummaryA dietary survey by the interview method was undertaken on the Finnish Lapps in 1960. Data on the food consumption of 135 families including 812 persons in all was collected.The average energy intake varies from 2250 to 2775 kcal in the different Lapp groups, when estimating the waste and refuse at approximately 15% of the total food consumed. The intake of energy may be considered adequate, since the Lapps are of normal physique according to height, weight, and skinfold measurements.The intake of some essential nutrients is scarce, especially that of calcium of the Skolt Lapps, which after deduction of waste is only 370 mg per day. The daily intake of ascorbic acid in the nomadic Mountain Lapp and Skolt groups is as low as 30 mg. Considering the losses of ascorbic acid in food preparation, the intake of this vitamin is very low in both these groups.Of the groups studied, the food of the Skolt Lapps is clearly the poorest.

A Strain of Lactobacillus bifldus which requires Strepogenin

SUMMARY: A strain of Lactobacillus bifidus was isolated from the faeces of a breastfed infant and subcultivated in the minimal medium of Hassinen, Durbin, TomarelliB egg albumin, and blood albumin were the most potent sources. The active material was heat stable, but was completely inactivated by treatment with strong acid. All the properties of this active material studied showed a close resemblance to those of strepogenin.

Effect of the fatty acids of human milk and cow's milk on intestinal lactobacilli.

When cultivated in vitro the main intestinal lactobacillus of infants, Lactobacillus bifidus, and that occurring in the intestines of milk‐fed rats, Lactobacillus acidophilus, are influenced in different ways by free fatty acids. Apart from some short‐chain saturated acids, saturated and unsaturated fatty acids inhibit the growth of L. bifidus. L. acidophilus is inhibited by saturated fatty acids, but requires unsaturated acids as essential nutrients.

Blood coagulation studies in a long-term experiment on dietary prevention of ischemic heart disease

Abstract In a long-term investigation the serum cholesterol level was lowered with the aid of an exchange of dietary saturated fatty acids for polyunsaturated fatty acids. After 6 years of diet, the experimental and control populations were reversed. Blood coagulation tests were made both before and after reversal of the diets. Whole blood clotting time (WBCT) and stypven time were determined twice, heparin tolerance time (HTT) and fibrinolysis in euglobulins only prior to the reversal of the diet. 150 male subjects were included in the first phase of the study; 129 of them were available for the second phase. On both occasions, the stypven time was shorter in the same group, in spite of the intervening reversal of the diets. There was no difference in WBCT and HTT, but the fibrinolysis was shorter in the control group. The intraindividual changes diverged: WBCT became more prolonged in the group changing from polyunsaturated to saturated fat intake, while stypven time was shortened more among the same group. WBCT was positively correlated with cholesterol and lipid phosphorus. Stypven time had negative correlations with relative body weight (RBW), systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and with serum cholesterol, triglyceride and lipid phosphorus. HTT was also negatively correlated with systolic pressure. Fibrinolysis time showed positive correlations with RBW, cholesterol and triglycerides. The observed lower incidence of ischemic heart disease in the group on the polyunsaturated diet evidently was not mediated by any changes in blood coagulability revealed by the tests used.

The effect of rapeseed oil on the thyroid function of rats

SummaryWhen young male rats were fed on a diet containing 50 cal.-per cent of soybean oil or rapeseed oil, carrier-free radio-iodine,131I, injected intraperitoneally in doses of 5.5–6.5 μc per animal, accumulated in the thyroid glands of therapeseed oil group at a slower rate and in smaller amounts than in the control group fed on soybean oil. The radioactivity of the glands of the rapeseed oil group remained approximately constant between 12 and 24 hours after the injection, whereas the activity of the glands of the control group continued to increase up to a maximum at about 24 hours.The rate of depletion of the thyroidal radio-iodine was greater in the rapeseed oil group than in the soybean oil group. The biological half-life of131I was found to be 4.6 days in the rapeseed oil group and 5.4 days in the soybean oil group, when calculated relative to the radioactivity of the thyroid 48 hours after the injection.When the rapeseed oil diet was replaced by the corresponding saponifiable fraction plus glycerol or by adding the unsaponifiable fraction of rapeseed oil to soybean oil, the biological half-life of131I was found to be 6.0 dyas in the former and 4.4 days in the latter. Thus the unsaponifiable fraction of rapeseed oil reduced the half-life in animals fed on soybean oil to the same level as that in animals fed on rapeseed oil. The effect of this same fraction on the iodine uptake curve of the soybean oil group was also to modify it so that it resembled the uptake curve of the rapeseed oil group.The results obtained indicate that rapeseed oil, and specifically its unsaponifiable fraction, contain a factor (or factors) which interferes with the ability of the thyroid gland to accumulate iodine from the plasma, but which does not seem to prevent the binding of iodine in organic form. For this reason, the thyroid gland itself becomes deficient in iodine, with the consequence that the synthesis of thyroxine is reduced and the secretion of thyrotrophic hormone increased. The result is hypothyroidism, despite the presence of an adequate amount of iodine in the diet.