Fig. 6.

Quercetin protects against the decrease in enzymatic antioxidant defences in the pancreas from rats fed high cholesterol diet and in Min6 cells exposed to cholesterol. In pancreas from rats fed for 4 weeks with control diet (C), control diet containing 0.5% quercetin diet (CQ), high cholesterol diet (HC) and high cholesterol diet containing 0.5% quercetin (HCQ) the cytosolic activities of (A) SOD and (B) glutathione peroxidase, and the mitochondrial activities of (C) SOD and (D) glutathione peroxidase were assessed after 12 h fasting. N=6–8 rats/group. Two-way ANOVAs (A-D), symbols indicate Bonferroni post-test significances ^#relative to control diet and *to HC diet. In cells incubated for 6 h with320 µM cholesterol and/or 10 or 50 QUE, the (E) SOD and (F) glutathione peroxidase activities were measured in the whole cell homogenate. Values are expressed as mean±SEM, from three independent culture preparations, each treatment performed in quadruplicate. One-way ANOVAs (p values specified in results), symbols indicate Bonferroni post-test significances ^#with respect to control and *to cholesterol-treated Min6 cells.