General Physiology and Biophysics Vol.33, No.2, p.251–256, 2014

The effects of chronic consumption of three types of palm oil diets on glomerular filtration rate (GFR), renal plasma flow (RPF) and blood pressure were studied. Wistar rats were randomly assigned into four groups of ten rats each respectively; control, fresh (FPO), photoxidized (PPO), thermoxidized (TPO) palm oil diet-fed rats. The control group was fed rat chow only, while experimental groups had different palm oil diets at 15% wt/wt for twelve weeks and tap water ad libitum. After the feeding period, GFR, RPF, systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressures were measured.

GFR and RPF of the TPO (0.07 ± 0.01 ml/min and 1.50 ± 0.24 ml/min) and PPO (0.14 ± 0.01 and 2.54 ± 0.11) groups were significantly (p < 0.001) reduced compared with control (0.77 ± 0.04 and 5.3 ± 0.30) and FPO (0.81 ± 0.02 and 4.8 ± 0.13) groups.

The GFR and RPF of the TPO group was significantly (p < 0.05) higher than that of the PPO group.

SBP and DBP of the TPO group (140 ± 3 mmHg and 106 ± 4 mmHg) were significantly (p < 0.01) increased when compared with the control (112 ± 6.4 and 78 ± 5), FPO (118 ± 5 and 81 ± 6) and PPO (122 ± 5 and 89 ± 5) groups.

These results suggest that chronic consumption of TPO and PPO caused a decrease in GFR and RPF, but increased blood pressure in rats, while FPO did not adversely affect blood pressure, GFR and RPF.