Effect of red wines with different in vitro antioxidant activity on oxidative stress of high-fat diet rats

It is not known if there is a correlation between in vitro and in vivo antioxidant activity of wines. Thus, in the present study, rats were fed with a high-fat diet to induce inflammation and oxidative stress, and received supplementation (1.0 mL/day) containing water or three red wine samples characterised by high (41.1 mmol TE/L), medium (35.7 mmol TE/L) and low (14.4 mmol TE/L) in vitro antioxidant activity. A correlation was observed between in vitro antioxidant activity measured in the wines and in vivo antioxidant activity measured in plasma (r = +0.49, p = 0.011). In liver, only the wine containing the highest in vitro antioxidant activity was able to reduce malondialdehyde concentration. Groups supplemented with wines containing lower in vitro antioxidant activity showed an increase in antioxidant enzyme activity. We concluded that the correlation between in vitro and in vivo antioxidant activity depends on the biomarker selected to evaluate the oxidative stress.

► Functional wines should be limited to wines with high in vitro antioxidant activity.
► Correlation between in vitro and in vivo antioxidant activity depends on the biomarker.
► Phenolics in the red wine can counter the deleterious prooxidative effects of ethanol.
► Only the highest in vitro antioxidant activity wine reduced liver MDA concentration.