Lycopene from two food sources does not affect antioxidant or cholesterol status of middle-aged adults

Ten healthy men and women consumed a low lycopene diet with no added lycopene (control treatment) or supplemented with watermelon or tomato juice each containing 20 mg lycopene. Subjects consumed each treatment for three weeks in a crossover design. Plasma, collected weekly was analyzed for total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and triglyceride concentrations and for the antioxidant biomarkers of malondialdehyde formation products (MDA), plasma glutathione peroxidase (GPX) and ferric reducing ability of plasma (FRAP). Data were analyzed using Proc Mixed Procedure and associations between antioxidant and lipid measures were identified by Pearson's product moment correlation analysis.Compared to the control diet, the lycopene-containing foods did not affect plasma lipid concentrations or antioxidant biomarkers. Women had higher total cholesterol, HDL-C and triglyceride concentrations than did the men. Total cholesterol was positively correlated to MDA and FRAP while HDL-C was positively correlated to MDA and GPX. GPX was negatively correlated to triglyceride concentration.The inclusion of watermelon or tomato juice containing 20 mg lycopene did not affect plasma lipid concentrations or antioxidant status of healthy subjects. However, plasma cholesterol levels impacted the results of MDA and FRAP antioxidant tests.Watermelons and tomatoes are good sources of the carotenoid lycopene [1,2]. However, bioavailability of lycopene is not directly related to plant content, and depends in a large part upon plant matrix effects. In tomatoes, heat processing and homogenization breaks protein-carotenoid complexes, releases lycopene from cell wall linkages and improves human uptake of this compound [3-6], while heat processing is not necessary for adequate uptake of lycopene from watermelon juice [7]. Extracts of both foods exhibit antioxidant activity in vitro and function is attributed to lycopene since isolated lycopene demonstrates strong oxygen and p