Metabolic Syndrome (MS) is a polymorphic disease with a high frequency, especially in older age. Any randomized study with nonhospitalized subjects might include those bearing MS, which greatly influenced the final results. Eighty subjects aged 50-75 years (38 men and 42 women) had consumed daily 4 caps of purified Embryonary Peptides (EP) for 60 days. The samples of blood from each subject were obtained before and after administration. Therefore, each subject was his own control. In all subjects, after administration, regardless of the MS presence, total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol had decreased approximately 30 % as compared with the initial values. Significant decreases of insulin and cortisol were also observed but associated with modifications of PSA, CEA and IGF-l. The magnitude of these changes was lower in subjects with MS. The long-lasting modifications induced by EP seem to have an adaptive-regulatory character, affecting the lipid metabolism (already modified in MS), as well as some pathways from steroid biosynthesis. Thus, EP might act similarly to some stimulatory factors, such as IGF-1, in a reversible stage of MS.

Keywords: metabolic syndrome, embryonary peptides.

INTRODUCTION

Metabolic Syndrome (MS) was introduced by Reaven in 1988 (1) and soon was internationally accepted as one of the greatest problems for public health, being a major source of cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes. The criteria to define MS include a group of severe anomalies such as abdominal obesity, insulin resistance, hyperinsulinemia, hypertension, hyperglycemia, and dyslipidemia (2-4). Actually, diagnosing MS, is not so easy, as several studies emphasized the multifaceted aspects of this condition (5). Even the presence of three criteria (according to ATP III
recommendations) does not provide an accurate diagnosis, as each of the accepted parameters has a frequency between 30-20 % (5). Therefore, NCEP ATP III and WHO recommendations require the presence of clinical couples and afterward of the clinical trial. According to other views, such criteria are too narrow and define the acute cases, mostly obese in irreversible condition (6).

In previous papers (7, 8), we noticed significant decreases in oxidative stress and the blood levels of some lipid components, such as total cholesterol (TC), LDL-cholesterol, triglycerides (TG). It should be mentioned that the drugs which decrease the blood TC, of statins type (Simvastatin), also decrease the oxidative stress (9), already present in MS (10) but so does the administration of embryonary peptides (EP) (8). Therefore, a possible effect of EP on the condition of MS is the motivation of the present study.

Even associated with a hypocaloric diet, the utilization of statins to decrease blood cholesterol provides modest results, not long-lasting, and with unpleasant effects.

By using hypocholesterolemic drugs, the blood level of triglycerides, apolipoproteins, and insulin is not affected. In such a way, the administration of a standardized nutritive supplement containing EP is devoid of toxic and side effects.

In a previous randomized study on subjects between 50-75 years (8), we observed great individual variations after the administration of EP, which might be explained by the presence of a chronic condition of MS among the subjects.