Abstract:
Background: To current understanding, endothelial dysfunction is the functional prestep in atherosclerosis. There is evidence that lipid lowering drugs, as well as antioxidative agents might improve endothelial dysfunction. Ubiquinone is known as a potent antioxidant. However, clinical data concerning the influence of ubiquinone on endothelial dysfunction are still missing. Thus for, aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of ubiquinone on the endothelial function of the brachial artery.
Methods: 25 male patients with elevated LDL-cholesterol and manifest endothelial dysfunction were included in the present study. The endothelial function of the brachial artery was assessed by the use of high-resolution ultrasound. Endothelial dysfunction was definded as a flow-mediated vasodilatation (FMD%) <5%. Each patient had to pass through three different treatment phases: phase 1: single therapy with cerivastatin 0,3 mg/day, phase 2: single therapy with ubiquinone (3x50 mg/day) and phase 3: combination therapy cerivastatin 0,3 mg/day + ubiquinone (3x50 mg/day). At the end of each phase there was measurement of the endothelial function and blood parameters.
Results: This study shows a significant improvement of the endothelial dysfunction with following treatment: Single therapy with ubiquinone led to a significant improvement of FMD% (baseline -0,25 +- 4,09% vs 7,06 +- 4,39% at six week follow up, p<0,0001.
Also cerivastatin- (baseline -0,25 +- 4,09% vs 8,80 +- 6,39%, p<0,0001) and combination therapy induced a significant improvement of FMD% (baseline -0,25 +- 4,09% vs 8,82 +- 5,78%, p<0,0001).
Conclusion: Our results suggest the effectiveness of oral supplementation with ubiquinone to improve endothelial dysfunction in male patients with hyperlipidemia. The usefulness of a combination with statins as well as the clinical impact of this finding needs to be evaluated in studies with larger patient numbers.