Page - (000155) - in Biomedical Chemistry: Current Trends and Developments

Additionally, in female weanling Wistar/NIN rats, maternal and postnatal Mg deficiency played important (and different) roles in the programming of increased body adiposity, insulin resistance and impaired glucose tolerance and insulin secretion in rat offspring (Venu, 2005; Venu, 2008). Magnesium deficiency is associated with vascular smooth muscle cells (SMC) proliferation, intimal thickening, thinning and fragmentation of elastic membranes, collagen accumulation and calcification as well as inflammation [increased interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and C-reactive protein (PCR) circulating levels], high rate of free-radical formation (which leads to an increased NO degradation by superoxide anions), increased susceptibility of lipoproteins to peroxidation and increased tissue lipid peroxidation. All these effects contribute to/have been associated with hypertriglyceridemia, pro-atherogenic alterations in lipoprotein metabolism, cardiovascular lipid deposition and/or the pathogenesis of vascular lesions following magnesium deficiency (Bussière, 1995; Gueux, 1995; Laurant, 1999; Busserolles, 2003; Rayssiguier, 2006; Rayssiguier, 2010). Through calcium antagonism, magnesium promotes vascular relaxation and thus plays an important role on blood pressure control (Laurant, 1999; Rice, 2011). Conversely, magnesium deprivation activates the sympathetic nervous system which contributes to increased blood pressure and heart rate (Laurant, 1999; Rayssiguier, 2010). Aldosterone, due to both genomic and non-genomic effects, also controls systemic vascular resistance, blood pressure and heart rate (MacFadyen, 1997; Freel, 2004). In line, magnesium deficiency has been described to stimulate the synthesis and secretion of aldosterone, possibly by decreasing the antagonism to calcium influx in the zona glomerulosa of the adrenal glands (Laurant, 1999). Magnesium supplementation during 4 weeks not only decreased fasting circulating C-peptide and insulin concentrations in healthy overweight/obese individuals but also altered whole blood gene expression [with negative regulation of 36 genes (including some involved in metabolic and inflammatory signaling pathways) and with