Abstract
Background: Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) have both shared and different cardiovascular effects, and commonly used fish oil supplements have considerably varied EPA/DHA ratios. Aims: We compared the effects of fish oil supplements with different EPA/DHA ratios on lipoprotein metabolism. Methods: In a double-blind, randomized cross-over study, normolipidemic adults (n = 30) consumed 12 g/day of EPA-rich (EPA/DHA: 2.3) or DHA-rich (EPA/DHA: 0.3) fish oil for 8-weeks, separated by an 8-week washout period. Results: Both fish oil supplements similarly lowered plasma TG levels and TG-related NMR parameters versus baseline (p < 0.05). There were no changes in plasma cholesterol-related parameters due to either fish oil, although on-treatment levels for LDL particle number were slightly higher for DHA-rich oil compared with EPA-rich oil (p < 0.05). Both fish oil supplements similarly altered HDL subclass profile and proteome, and down regulated HDL proteins related to inflammation, with EPA-rich oil to a greater extent. Furthermore, EPA-rich oil increased apoM abundance versus DHA-rich oil (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Overall, fish oil supplements with varied EPA/DHA ratios had similar effects on total lipids/lipoproteins, but differences were observed in lipoprotein subfraction composition and distribution, which could impact on the use of EPA versus DHA for improving cardiovascular health.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 749 |
| Journal | Nutrients |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
Funding
Acknowledgments: The authors are thankful to all staff of Outpatient 7 clinics at the NIH Clinical Center (Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center) in particular to Farahnaz Hassanshahi, Sr. CRN, OCN/BMTCRN, Team Lead; Roumiana Nenkova-Dimtcheva, Sr. CRN, OCN, Clinical Educator; Elizabeth Wendell, RN, MS, OCN, Nurse Manager, for their help in this study. We thank Metabolic Clinical Health Technicians for all the work to collect the dietary data. We are also thankful to Dana Smith, Protocol Navigator, Adriana Byrnes, Ph.D., Head of Regulatory Support. We thank Dr. Lita Freeman for proofreading the manuscript. The authors would like to thank Nippon Suisan Kaisha Ltd. for supplying fish oil supplement capsules, and thank Hiroko Miyahara and Masashi Katayama for their technical assistance. This work was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) (HL006095) at the National Institutes of Health. The authors are thankful to all staff of Outpatient 7 clinics at the NIH Clinical Center (Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center) in particular to Farahnaz Hassanshahi, Sr. CRN, OCN/BMTCRN, Team Lead; Roumiana Nenkova-Dimtcheva, Sr. CRN, OCN, Clinical Educator; Elizabeth Wendell, RN, MS, OCN, Nurse Manager, for their help in this study. We thank Metabolic Clinical Health Technicians for all the work to collect the dietary data. We are also thankful to Dana Smith, Protocol Navigator, Adriana Byrnes, Ph.D., Head of Regulatory Support. We thank Dr. Lita Freeman for proofreading the manuscript. The authors would like to thank Nippon Suisan Kaisha Ltd. for supplying fish oil supplement capsules, and thank Hiroko Miyahara and Masashi Katayama for their technical assistance. This work was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) (HL006095) at the National Institutes of Health.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| BMTCRN | |
| Nippon Suisan Kaisha Ltd. | |
| OCN | |
| National Institutes of Health (NIH) | |
| National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) | HL006095 |
| NIH Clinical Center (CC) |
Keywords
- Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)
- Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA)
- HDL cholesterol
- LDL cholesterol
- Lipoprotein metabolism
- Omega-3 fatty acids
- Triglyceride
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Food Science
- Nutrition and Dietetics