Abstract
Oxidative stress is in the basis of some diseases such as atherosclerosis, and is considered to be very important from the point of view of ageing. Biological membranes are very sensitive to oxidative stress because the presence of carbon–carbon double bonds in the lipid tails of their phospholipids. The type of dietary fat influences several biochemical parameters at the membrane level because membranes adapt their lipid composition to some extent in response to dietary fat. It is well know that dietary fat may modulate membrane susceptibility to oxidation, thus probably affecting in a direct or indirect way the susceptibility to oxidative stress-related phenomena. In this review we summarize more than 15 years of research on the role of dietary fat, namely virgin olive oil, from the point of view of mitochondrial oxidative stress, ageing and atherosclerosis prevention.