Phytomedicine. 2004 Jan;11(1):24-35.
The effect of garlic on arteriosclerotic nanoplaque
formation and size.
Siegel G, Malmsten M, et al Institute of Physiology,
Charite, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Berlin, Germany.
OBJECTIVE: In an in vitro biosensor model (PCT/EP 97/05212),
the interplay between different lipoproteins in
arteriosclerotic nanoplaque formation, as well as aqueous
garlic extract (0.2-5.0 g/l from LI 111 powder) as a
possible candidate drug against arterio/atherosclerosis were
tested within the frame of a high throughput screening.
METHODS: The processes described below were studied by
ellipsometric techniques quantifying the adsorbed amount
(nanoplaque formation) and layer thickness (nanoplaque
size). A thorough description of the experimental setup has
been given previously.
RESULTS: Proteoheparan sulfate (HS-PG) adsorption to
hydrophobic silica was monoexponential and after
approximately 30 min constant. The addition of
2.52 mmol/l Ca2+ led to a further increase in HS-PG
adsorption because Ca2+ was bound to the polyanionic
glycosaminoglycan (GAG) chains thus screening their
negative fixed charges and turning the whole molecule
more hydrophobic. Incubation with 0.2 g/l aqueous garlic
extract (GE) for 30 min did not change the adsorption of
HS-PG. However, the following addition of Ca2+ ions
reduced the increase in adsorption by 50.8% within 40
min. The adsorption of a second Ca2+ step to 10.08 mmol/l
was reduced by even 82.1% within the next 40 min. Having
detected this inhibition of receptor calcification, it
could be expected that the build-up of the ternary
nanoplaque complex is also affected by garlic. The LDL
plasma fraction (100
mg/dl) from a healthy probationer showed beginning
arteriosclerotic nanoplaque formation already at a
normal blood Ca2+ concentration, with a strong
increase at higher Ca2+ concentrations. GE,
preferably in a concentration of 1 g/l, applied
acutely in the experiment, markedly slowed down this
process of ternary aggregational nanoplaque
complexation at all Ca2+ concentrations used. In a
normal blood Ca2+ concentration of 2.52 mmol/l, the
garlic induced reduction of nanoplaque formation and
molecular size amounted to 14.8% and 3.9%,
respectively, as compared to the controls.
Furthermore, after ternary complex build-up, GE
similar to HDL, was able to reduce nanoplaque
formation and size. The incubation time for HDL and
garlic was only 30 min each in these experiments.
Nevertheless, after this short time the deposition of
the ternary complex decreased by 6.2% resp.
16.5%, i.e. the complex aggregates were basically
resolvable.
CONCLUSIONS: These experiments clearly proved that garlic
extract strongly inhibits Ca2+ binding to HS-PG. In
consequence, the formation of the ternary HS-PG/LDL/Ca2+
complex, initially responsible for the 'nanoplaque'
composition and ultimately for the arteriosclerotic plaque
generation, is decisively blunted.
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