Dietary n-6 fatty acids inhibit the incorporation of dietary n-3 fatty acids in thrombocyte and serum phospholipids in humans: A controlled dietetic study

The effect of a high dietary intake of n-6 fatty acids (36 g daily) vs a low intake (4-6 g daily) on the incorporation of fatty acids from a dietary supplementation of n-3 fatty acids (6 g daily) was studied for 8 weeks in 15 healthy, normolipaemic volunteers. The importance of a high (43.6) vs a low (20.6) energy percentage from fat was also investigated in the participants on a low n-6 intake. Fatty acid analyses of serum and thrombocyte phospholipids showed a marked increase in docosahexaenoic acid (22:6 (n-3), DHA) and especially eicosapentaenoic acid (20:5 (n-3), EPA) in both the high and low n-6 groups after 14 days, but the changes were significantly greater in the low n-6 diet groups. Changes of the ratio between EPA and arachidonic acid (20:4 (n-6), AA) in phospholipids followed an identical pattern in serum and thrombocytes. This indicates that thrombocytes are influenced by the fatty acid composition in serum. The results showed that incorporation of n-3 fatty acids in phospholipids was reduced...