The influence of quercetin on the functional state of platelets and the viscosity of blood among the aged people with the metabolic syndrome

The purpose of this research was to study the effect of quercetin on the functional state of platelets and blood viscosity among the aged patients with the metabolic syndrome (MS). 110 patients with MS in the age of 60-75 years were divided equally into the main and control groups. The patients of the main group received quercetin for 3 months (drug "Quertin", chewable tablets produced by private joint stock company scientific-productional centre "Borschagovsky chemical pharmaceutical plant") in dose 80 mg 3 times per day. The examined subjects from the control group were treated with placebo for the same time. Before and after the course of treatment, MS criteria were evaluated, platelet aggregation capacity, blood viscosity, and serum lipid levels were determined. After course treatment with quercetin, the rheological properties of blood were improved: its viscosity, spontaneous and induced aggregation of the platelets were decreased. A statistically significant decrease of total cholesterol and low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol in serum was observed. Correlation analysis showed that the improvement of blood viscosity was due to the favorable changes in the lipid spectrum and a decrease of the aggregation capacity of platelets. Thus, the obtained results indicate that the use of course of quercetin by the aged patients with metabolic syndrome (within 3 months) reduces the manifestation of dyslipidemia, increased spontaneous and induced platelet aggregation, contributes to the increase of erythrocyte deformity index that together lead to a decrease of blood viscosity as one of the risk factors for complications of metabolic syndrome.