The findings suggest that the fruit may have additional benefits to heart health than those previously demonstrated in human trials.
Small studies have found higher levels of HDL cholesterol after people drank cranberry juice. The new study however examines blood vessel health in pigs that are bred to develop high blood cholesterol and then atherosclerosis, the thickening and hardening of arteries, by eight months of age.
"Since the abnormal functioning of blood vessels is an important component of heart disease, finding ways to improve vascular function in patients with high cholesterol and atherosclerosis is critical to helping protect these patients from consequences such as heart attack or stroke," said lead researcher Kris Kruse-Elliott from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine.
Speaking at the annual congress of the International Union of Physiological Sciences, she described the effects of feeding familial hypercholesterolemic (FH) pigs with a daily supplement of 150g cranberry juice powder per kg weight. The blood vessels in these pigs do not function normally.
By the end of six months, these pigs' blood vessels acted more like normal pigs, said Kruse-Elliott. Another group that did not get cranberry juice powder had "significantly less vascular relaxation" than either normal or cranberry-fed pigs.
Cranberries are increasingly consumed for health reasons as they have been shown to prevent urinary tract infections. They are also thought to play a role in gum disease, ulcers and even cancer.
Steve - We usually do not post animal studies, but based on fact that the cranberry has shown heart benefits in very small human trials, we thought this study was significant.
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