Intake of olive oil can modulate the transbilayer movement of human erythrocyte membrane cholesterol

Transbilayer movement of erythrocyte membrane cholesterol is impaired in patients affected with essential hypertension. This is an inherited disorder, but environmental factors are also involved. Dietary fats might play a role in the prevention and/or treatment of such abnormality in the kinetic pools of membrane cholesterol. We tested this hypothesis by using a diet (in which 30% of the energy came from fat) rich in olive oil or in high-oleic sunflower oil (as natural sources of monounsaturated fatty acids, MUFAs) and determining their influence on the movement of cholesterol into the lipid bilayer of the erythrocyte membrane after a four-week period. We concluded that dietary olive oil is helpful in normalizing the impaired transbilayer movement of membrane cholesterol in erythrocytes of eight normocholesterolaemic and eight hypercholesterolaemic hyperten sive patients. However, the effects cannot be attributed exclusively to the content of MUFAs (mainly oleic acid) in the diet, as high-oleic sunflower oil was unable to induce favourable changes.