EFFECTS OF GLYCOSYLATED POLYPHENOLS FROM OLEA EUROPEA OF HEART TISSUE. MORPHOLOGICAL AND IMMUNOHISTOCHEMICAL STUDY

Polyphenols are a large and diverse family of organic molecules characterized by a marked structural and functional variability, but also all powerful antioxidants. Among the polyphenols, especially flavonoids are able to protect cells from oxygen free radicals, which cause progressive structural and functional alterations of cellular aging and chronic diseases [1]. Several studies have shown that regular intake of phenolic compounds in the diet plays a preventive action against several diseases, due to the multiple properties: antioxidant, antitumor, anti-atherogenic, anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial and lipid-lowering [2,3,4]. The research aims to evaluate the beneficial effects of polyphenols in a hypercholesterolemic diet using C. auratus as an experimental model. The samples were divided into three groups: the first was fed with feed enriched with cholesterol to 10% for 30 days, the second group was fed with hypercholesterolemic diet and treated with polyphenols during the last 15 days (curative treatment) and the third group was used as control (normal fed). Tissue preparations coming from the heart from both control and experimental fish are stained with routinary histological techniques, and serial sections are immunolabelled with α-SMA antibody [5].