A natural sugar found in foods such as honey can reduce atherosclerotic plaques and is expected to be used to treat atherosclerosis, according to a study at the University of Washington.

The sugar, known as trehalose, is a natural carbohydrate made up of two glucose molecules, widely found in many foods, such as honey, mushrooms, algae, beans, shrimp, beer, and yeast fermented foods.

The researchers developed a group of mice with atherosclerotic tendencies, injected trehalose into half of the mice, and the other half as controls. They found that the average size of the control group of mice artery plaque is 0.35 mm, mouse artery injection trehalose plaque in the small, with an average of 0.25 mm, which means that the arterial plaque shrunk by about 30%. The difference was statistically significant.

The researchers also found that the elimination of arterial plaques disappeared when the injection of trehalose was taken orally or injected with other sugars and even structurally similar sugars.

The researchers wrote in "natural communication" published by the British papers, trehalose can enhance the capacity of macrophages to the immune system in the house ", let them become" super clean, plaque macrophages. Macrophages are responsible for cleaning up a variety of cell wastes, including malformed proteins, excess fat droplets, and lost functioning organelles.

The researchers plan to continue studying the feasibility of trehalose for the treatment of atherosclerosis.