The Pattern of Fatty Acids Displaced by EPA and DHA Following 12 Months Supplementation Varies between Blood Cell and Plasma Fractions

Abstract

Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) are increased in plasma lipids and blood cell membranes in response to supplementation. Whilst arachidonic acid (AA) is correspondingly decreased, the effect on other fatty acids (FA) is less well described and there may be site-specific differences. In response to 12 months EPA + DHA supplementation in doses equivalent to 0–4 portions of oily fish/week (1 portion: 3.27 g EPA+DHA) multinomial regression analysis was used to identify important FA changes for plasma phosphatidylcholine (PC), cholesteryl ester (CE) and triglyceride (TAG) and for blood mononuclear cells (MNC), red blood cells (RBC) and platelets (PLAT). Dose-dependent increases in EPA + DHA were matched by decreases in several n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in PC, CE, RBC and PLAT, but were predominantly compensated for by oleic acid in TAG. Changes were observed for all FA classes in MNC. Consequently the n-6:n-3 PUFA ratio was reduced in a dose-dependent manner in all pools after 12 months (37%–64% of placebo in the four portions group). We conclude that the profile of the FA decreased in exchange for the increase in EPA + DHA following supplementation differs by FA pool with implications for understanding the impact of n-3 PUFA on blood lipid and blood cell biology.

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Nutrients

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Nutrients

Journal ID (publisher-id): nutrients

Title: Nutrients

Publisher: MDPI

ISSN (Electronic): 2072-6643

Publication date (Electronic): 03 August 2015

Publication date Collection: August 2015

Volume: 7

Issue: 8

Pages: 6281-6293

Affiliations

[1 ]MRC Human Nutrition Research, Elsie Widdowson Laboratory, Fulbourn Road, Cambridge CB1 9NL, UK; E-Mails: celia.walker@ 123456mrc-hnr.cam.ac.uk (C.G.W.); lmbrowning@ 123456btinternet.com (L.M.B.); j.m.gambell@ 123456gmail.com (J.M.G.); susan.jebb@ 123456phc.ox.ac.uk (S.A.J.)

[2 ]Human Development and Health Academic Unit, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, Tremona Road, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK; E-Mails: A.West@ 123456soton.ac.uk (A.L.W.); jm24@ 123456soton.ac.uk (J.M.)

[3 ]Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Woodstock Road, Oxford OX2 6GG, UK

[4 ]NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre, University of Southampton and University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, Tremona Road, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK

[5 ]Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Author notes

[* ]Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: pcc@ 123456soton.ac.uk ; Tel.: [phone]; Fax: [phone].

Article

Publisher ID: nutrients-07-05285

DOI: 10.3390/nu7085285

PMC ID: 4555124

PubMed ID: 26247960

Copyright statement: © 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

License:

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Categories

Subject: Article