Thursday, July 30, 2009

Nutrigenomics explains omega-3’s immune health benefits

Omega-3-rich fish oil beneficially affects gene expression, says a new nutrigenomic study that published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The study is said to be the first to show that DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) can affect gene expression to a more anti-atherogenic and anti-inflammatory status.

Study details Dr Afman and her co-workers from the Nutrition, Metabolism and Genomics Group at Wageningen University recruited 111 healthy Dutch elderly subjects and randomly assigned to consume 1.8 or 0.4 g of EPA plus DHA every day, or to consume 4.0 grams of high-oleic acid sunflower oil per day, for six months. Microarray analysis of gene expression in PBMCs revealed that that high EPA plus DHA supplement resulted in altered gene expression of 1040 genes, while the sunflower oil supplement altered gene expression of 298 genes. “Of these genes, 140 were overlapping between the groups, which resulted in 900 uniquely changed genes in the EPA plus DHA group,” said the researchers. Furthermore, the altered genes were involved in inflammatory- and atherogenic-related pathways, said the researchers. “These results are the first to show that intake of EPA plus DHA for 26 weeks can alter the gene expression profiles of PBMCs to a more anti-inflammatory and anti-atherogenic status,” concluded the researchers.

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