Concentrated red grape juice exerts antioxidant, hypolipidemic, and antiinflammatory effects in both hemodialysis patients and healthy subjects.

Background: Patients treated with hemodialysis frequently experience cardiovascular complications attributed, among other causes, to dyslipidemia, increased oxidative stress, and inflammation.

Objective: The aim of the study was to study the effects of dietary supplementation with concentrated red grape juice (RGJ), a source of polyphenols, on lipoprotein profile, antioxidant capacity, LDL oxidation, and inflammatory biomarkers.

Design: Twenty-six patients receiving hemodialysis and 15 healthy subjects were instructed to drink 100 mL RGJ/d for 14 d. Blood was drawn at baseline, twice during RGJ supplementation, and twice during the 6-mo follow-up period. As a control, 12 other randomly recruited hemodialysis patients not receiving RGJ were studied. Lipids, apolipoproteins, oxidized LDL, and antioxidant vitamins were measured in plasma. The bioavailability of RGJ polyphenols was assessed in healthy subjects.

Results: The maximum plasma concentration of quercetin was achieved 3 h after RGJ ingestion, which indicates that supplement-derived polyphenols are rapidly absorbed. In both healthy subjects and hemodialysis patients, RGJ consumption increased the antioxidant capacity of plasma without affecting concentrations of uric acid or ascorbic acid; reduced the concentration of oxidized LDL; and increased the concentration of cholesterol-standardized alpha-tocopherol. RGJ supplementation also caused a significant decrease in LDL-cholesterol and apolipoprotein B-100 concentrations, while increasing the concentrations of HDL cholesterol and apolipoprotein A-I. In a further study in hemodialysis patients, RGJ supplementation for 3 wk significantly reduced plasma monocyte chemoattractant protein 1, an inflammatory biomarker associated with cardiovascular disease risk.

Conclusion: Dietary supplementation with concentrated RGJ improves the lipoprotein profile, reduces plasma concentrations of inflammatory biomarkers and oxidized LDL, and may favor a reduction in cardiovascular disease risk.