Fat Fuels PCB Damage: Diet influences toxic effects leading to heart disease
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have been associated with cancer for decades. Since the late 1990s, evidence has also linked the pollutants to cardiovascular disease among workers with long-term exposure to PCBs in electrical equipment. Researchers now report that experiments on mice have shown that corn oil, which is common in U.S. diets, can magnify a PCB’s damage to cells lining blood vessels.
Such damage can increase the buildup of artery-clogging fat in heart disease, report Bernhard Hennig of the University of Kentucky in Lexington and his colleagues in an upcoming Environmental Health Perspectives.