科学家在一项新的研究中得出结论说，大蒜具有防止心肌病的“显著”潜力。心肌病是一种心脏病，它是糖尿病人的主要死因。他们的报告发表在了美国化学学会（ACS）的《农业与食品化学杂志》（Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry）双周刊上，它也解释了糖尿病人的糖尿病心肌病风险高的原因。

Wei-Wen Kuo及其同事指出，糖尿病人死于心脏病的风险至少是其他人的2倍，而死于心脏病占了全部和糖尿病有关的死亡的80%。他们特别容易受到一种称为糖尿病心肌病的心脏病的伤害，该病让心脏肌肉组织发炎并削弱它们。Kuo的研究组从过去的研究中得到了线索，即大蒜通常可能防止心脏病而且还有助于控制糖尿病的异乎寻常地高的血糖浓度。但是他们意识到了几乎没有关于大蒜对糖尿病心肌病的作用的专门研究。

这组科学家给患糖尿病的实验室大鼠喂食大蒜油或玉米油。食用大蒜油的大鼠出现了与防止心脏损伤有关的有益变化。这组科学家说，这些变化看上去与大蒜油强大的抗氧化属性有关。他们还说，他们在大蒜油里发现的20多种物质可能对这种作用有贡献。这份报告指出：“总之，大蒜油具有防止心脏出现糖尿病诱导的心肌病的显著潜力。”

英文摘要：

J. Agric. Food Chem., 2010, 58 (19), pp 10347–10355 DOI: 10.1021/jf101606s

Cardiac Contractile Dysfunction and Apoptosis in Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetic Rats Are Ameliorated by Garlic Oil Supplementation
Hsiu-Chung Ou?, Bor-Show Tzang?§#, Mu-Hsin Chang, Cheng-Tzu Liu, Hui Wen Liu▲, Chong-Kuei Lii, Da-Tian Bau●, Pei-Min Chao, and Wei-Wen Kuo*▲

Previous studies have suggested that garlic oil could protect the cardiovascular system. However, the mechanism by which garlic oil protects diabetes-induced cardiomyopathy is unclear. In this study, streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats received garlic oil (0, 10, 50, or 100 mg/kg of body weight) by gastric gavage every 2 days for 16 days. Normal rats without diabetes were used as control. Cardiac contractile dysfunction examined by echocardiography and apoptosis evaluated by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end-labeling (TUNEL) assay were observed in diabetic rat hearts. Additionally, a shift in cardiac myosin heavy chain (MHC) gene expression from α- to β-MHC isoform, decreased levels of superoxide dismutase-1 (SOD-1) and cardiac α-actin, and elevated cardiac thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) and caspase- and p38-NFκB-leading apoptosis signaling activities were demonstrated in diabetic hearts. However, these diabetes-related cardiac dysfunctions were almost dose-dependently ameliorated by garlic oil administration. In conclusion, garlic oil possesses significant potential for protecting hearts from diabetes-induced cardiomyopathy.