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September 2000, Volume 54, Number 9, Pages 690-694
Table of contents    Previous  Abstract  Next   Article  PDF
Original Communication
The effect of low-dose fish oil supplementation on serum growth factors in healthy humans
J M W Wallace1, A J McCabe2, H M Roche3, S Higgins4, P J Robson1, W S Gilmore1, H McGlynn1 and J J Strain1

1Northern Ireland Centre for Diet and Health (NICHE), University of Ulster, Coleraine, Northern Ireland, UK

2Department of Pathology, Yale School of Medicine, PO Box 208023, New Haven, CT 06520-8023, USA

3Unit of Nutrition and Dietetics, Trinity Centre for Health Sciences, St James Hospital, Dublin 8, Republic of Ireland

4Nutritional Sciences, Department of Food Sciences and Technology, University College Cork, Republic of Ireland

Correspondence to: J MW Wallace, NICHE, University of Ulster, Coleraine Co Londonderry BT52 1SA, Northern Ireland, UK.j.wallace@ulst.ac.uk

Guarantor: JMW Wallace.

Contributors: JMWW carried out sample analysis and was the main author of the manuscript. AJMcC assisted with the biochemical analysis. HMR was involved in designing and implementing the intervention study. SH assisted in the statistical analysis. PJR, HMcG, WSG and JJS were involved in interpreting the results and assisted with writing the manuscript.

Abstract

Objective: To examine the effect of low-dose fish oil supplementation on specific growth factors, purported to play a central role in lesion formation, and also on the total growth factor activity of serum, as assessed by the induction of DNA synthesis in cultured human arterial smooth muscle cells.

Design: Randomized placebo-controlled double-blind intervention study.

Setting: Free-living population.

Subjects: Sixty-three healthy volunteers, 37 males and 26 females.

Interventions: Four treatment regimes with subjects receiving 0, 0.3,0.6 or 0.9 g/day of n-3 PUFA for an 8 week period. Blood samples were taken at baseline and following the 8 week intervention. All samples were analysed in batch following completion of the study.

Results: Consumption of fish oil had no effect on serum platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), or transforming growth factor beta (TGFbeta) concentration. Furthermore, fish oil supplementation did not alter the total growth factor activity of serum.

Conclusions: Results indicate that low-dose fish oil supplementation, equivalent to about two portions of fatty fish per week and providing less than 1 g n-3 PUFA/day, does not alter the levels of the major serum growth factors and does not modify total serum growth factor activity in healthy human volunteers.

Sponsorship: European Union shared cost project (FAIR-CT-95-0085).

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 54, 690-694

Keywords

low-dose fish oil; n-3 fatty acids; growth factors; atherosclerosis; serum

September 2000, Volume 54, Number 9, Pages 690-694
Table of contents    Previous  Abstract  Next   Article  PDF
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