Hybrid Palm vs Extra-virgin Olive oil supplementation: effect on human erythrocytes lipid composition

Hybrid palm oil (HPO) is the crude palm oil obtained from interspecific hybrid Elaeis oleifera x Elaeis guineensis. HPOIt is rich in antioxidant compounds, such as vitamins as like as β-carotene, and it contains tocopherols and tocotrienols in significant amounts. Despite its content in bioactive substances, few works have been conducted with the aim to evaluate the effect of HPO dietary intake on the lipid composition of human blood cells. In our work, the effects on the erythrocytes lipid composition of volunteers submitted to a HPO dietary supplementation (during 3 months) were investigated and compared with those provided by an extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) supplementation. In detail, ω3 index, as an innovative marker of risk factor for the cardiovascular diseases given by the sum of the relative percentages of eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acids in erythrocytes, was monitored during this clinical trial. From a baseline value of about 3.0, ω3 index fell down after the first month of treatment to a value of about 0.4, both for the HPO and EVOO experimental groups. During the second and the third months of intervention, ω3 index increased till to the starting value, suggesting that a prolonged period of treatment could provide an additional effect. No significant differences on ω3 index variation trend emerged between HPO and EVOO supplementations. Besides ω3 index, the erythrocytes phospholipids (PL) molecular species composition was determined by means of UPLC-MS-MS. A fast analytic method based on HILIC column and ESI source was developed, allowing the separation of phosphatidylcholine (PC), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) and sphingomyelin (SPH) within 6 minutes, and the identification of several PL molecular species. PC, PE and SPH molecular species profiles were affected by dietary oil supplementation, both for HPO and EVOO