Antiatherogenic Potential of Nigella sativa Seeds and Oil in Diet-Induced Hypercholesterolemia in Rabbits

Table 2

Changes in plasma TC levels (mmol L⁻¹) at 0 week, after feeding of 1.0% cholesterol for 3 weeks and after 2, 4, 6 and 8 weeks of treatment.

Group	Week 0	HC induction for 3 weeks	Treatment period (weeks)
			2	4	6	8
NC	0.81 ± 0.41^a	1.0 ± 0.52^a	1.29 ± 0.58	1.06 ± 0.40	0.88 ± 0.3	0.60 ± 0.26
PC	0.38 ±0.14^a	10.33 ± 5.1^b	15.09 ± 4.5^a	13.09 ± 3.5^a	8.23 ± 2.1^a	5.41 ± 1.3^a
NSO	0.48 ± 0.26^a	10.04 ± 3.1^b	7.15 ± 2.7^b	3.59 ± 1.9^b	1.62±0.8^b	0.84 ± 0.3^b
NSP	0.84 ± 0.8^a	10.70± 5.4^b	7.06 ± 3.8^c	4.55 ± 2.0^b	1.57 ± 0.7^b	0.64 ± 0.3^b
ST	0.31± 0.1^a	12.90 ± 4.9^b	9.90 ± 1.7 ^b,c	6.72 ±1.7^b	3.23 ± 1.5^b	0.67 ± 0.6^b

Results are expressed as means ±SD of five rabbits. All groups received 1% cholesterol added to the diet except for NC group. Within a column, values with the same superscript letters are not significantly different from each other at 𝑃<.05.