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Food and health

The impact of the lacto-ovo vegetarian diet on the erythrocyte superoxide dismutase activity: a study in the Romanian population

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 68, pages 184–188 (2014)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background/Objectives:

Recent studies have shown that vitamin B12 scavenges superoxide anion as effectively as superoxide dismutase (SOD), and has a key role in the defense against oxidative stress. The status of vitamin B12 is suboptimal in a substantial number of vegans and even vegetarians. We therefore evaluated in lacto-ovo vegetarians (LOVs) who did not take vitamin B12 supplements the impact of the duration of this diet on the vitamin B12 status, the erythrocyte SOD activity and the serum malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration.

Subjects/Methods:

The study group included 38 non-vegetarians and 48 LOVs divided, according to the duration of this diet, into two subgroups: LOV1 (2–10 years) and LOV2 (11–29 years). The erythrocyte SOD activity and the serum concentrations of vitamin B12 and MDA were assayed.

Results:

In LOVs, the mean serum vitamin B12 concentration, the erythrocyte SOD activity and the mean serum MDA concentration were statistically significantly lower that in non-vegetarians. No significant association between the serum vitamin B12 and MDA concentrations and the duration of the LOV diet were observed. A significant inverse linear correlation between SOD activity and the duration of adherence to LOV diet was observed in LOVs.

Conclusions:

The duration of LOV diet has impact only on SOD activity. Further researches, both in vitro and in vivo, are necessary to understand the underlying molecular mechanism.

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Acknowledgements

We express our thanks to all the individuals who took part as volunteers in the present study and to Dr C R Prelicz for his help with the recruitment of LOVs. We are also grateful to Dr Sumanto Haldar from the Human Nutrition Research Centre of Newcastle University, UK. We sincerely appreciate his constructive criticism and invaluable comments that remarkably improved the quality of our paper. We thank Dr Sebastian Oltean from University of Bristol, UK for his kind assistance in proofreading our manuscript and helpful discussions concerning this work. This study was financially supported by ‘Iuliu Haţieganu’ University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania (Grant no.22714/6/06.10.2011).

AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS

ECC designed and gave the conception of the study, analyzed and interpreted the laboratory data, wrote the draft of the manuscript and critically reviewed the manuscript; ECC and MMB conducted the recruitment of subjects, processed the blood samples and performed the biochemical assessments; HAC performed the statistical analyses, interpreted the statistical results, contributed to the manuscript draft and critically reviewed the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Pharmacy, ‘Iuliu Haţieganu’ University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania,

    M M Boancă

  2. Department of Medical Informatics and Biostatistics, Faculty of Medicine, ‘Iuliu Haţieganu’ University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    H A Colosi

  3. Department of Pharmaceutical Biochemistry and Clinical Laboratory, Faculty of Pharmacy, ‘Iuliu Haţieganu’ University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    E C Crăciun

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  1. M M Boancă
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Correspondence to E C Crăciun.

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Boancă, M., Colosi, H. & Crăciun, E. The impact of the lacto-ovo vegetarian diet on the erythrocyte superoxide dismutase activity: a study in the Romanian population. Eur J Clin Nutr 68, 184–188 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2013.179

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