Incorporation of dietary fish-, dairy- and plant-derived fatty acids into red blood cell membranes
Conference Year
January 2019
Abstract
Dietary fat quality (i.e., types of fatty acids (FA) consumed) plays an important role in disease prevention and development. The purpose of this research was to evaluate whether the FA composition of red blood cell membranes (RBCM) can be used as an assessment tool and biomarker to validate the intake of specific diet-derived FA. The objectives were to 1) determine the incorporation of unique, dietary FA into the RBCM, and 2) verify whether these FA were differently incorporated into the RBCM of males and females. Eighty genetically-outbred male and female CD-1 mice were randomly assigned to one of four isocaloric high-fat (40% of total energy) diets at one month of age (n = 10/diet/sex) 1) control (CON) - fat blend representing the average FA profile of the U.S. American diet, 2) fish oil (FO) - CON supplemented with 30% fish oil, 3) dairy fat (BO) - CON supplemented with 30% butter oil, or 4) echium oil (EO) - CON supplemented with 30% echium oil. At the end of the 13-month trial, cardiac blood was collected for RBCM isolation, lipid extraction, FA methylation, and FA analysis using gas-liquid chromatography. Unique dietary FA derived from EO and BO (EO: g-linolenic acid and stearidonic acid; BO: odd- and branched-chain FA, vaccenic acid, and conjugated linoleic acids) were not incorporated into the RBCM as predicted. The RBCM of FO-fed mice, however, contained significantly higher proportions of long-chain n-3 FA, eicosapentaenoic acid (20:5 n-3), docosapentaenoic acid (22:5 n-3), and docosahexaenoic acid (22:6 n-3) compared to the RBCM of BO-, CO-, and EO-fed mice. EO-fed mice had the highest RBCM content of mead acid (20:3 n-9) than BO-, CO-, and FO-fed mice, respectively (P < 0.0001). RBCM of FO- and EO-fed mice contained a lower proportion of arachidonic acid (20:4 n-6) than RBCM of BO- and CO-fed mice (P < 0.05), respectively. Overall, there were only marginal differences in the RBCM FA composition and proportions between male and female mice with the exception of mead acid which was 25% higher in the RBCM of male mice than in female mice (P < 0.0001). In conclusion, RBCM FA cannot be reliably used as a marker of a dietary FA source.
Primary Faculty Mentor Name
Dr. Jana Kraft
Faculty/Staff Collaborators
Allison L. Unger (Graduate Student Mentor)
Status
Undergraduate
Student College
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Program/Major
Animal Science
Second Program/Major
Spanish
Primary Research Category
Biological Sciences
Secondary Research Category
Health Sciences
Incorporation of dietary fish-, dairy- and plant-derived fatty acids into red blood cell membranes
Dietary fat quality (i.e., types of fatty acids (FA) consumed) plays an important role in disease prevention and development. The purpose of this research was to evaluate whether the FA composition of red blood cell membranes (RBCM) can be used as an assessment tool and biomarker to validate the intake of specific diet-derived FA. The objectives were to 1) determine the incorporation of unique, dietary FA into the RBCM, and 2) verify whether these FA were differently incorporated into the RBCM of males and females. Eighty genetically-outbred male and female CD-1 mice were randomly assigned to one of four isocaloric high-fat (40% of total energy) diets at one month of age (n = 10/diet/sex) 1) control (CON) - fat blend representing the average FA profile of the U.S. American diet, 2) fish oil (FO) - CON supplemented with 30% fish oil, 3) dairy fat (BO) - CON supplemented with 30% butter oil, or 4) echium oil (EO) - CON supplemented with 30% echium oil. At the end of the 13-month trial, cardiac blood was collected for RBCM isolation, lipid extraction, FA methylation, and FA analysis using gas-liquid chromatography. Unique dietary FA derived from EO and BO (EO: g-linolenic acid and stearidonic acid; BO: odd- and branched-chain FA, vaccenic acid, and conjugated linoleic acids) were not incorporated into the RBCM as predicted. The RBCM of FO-fed mice, however, contained significantly higher proportions of long-chain n-3 FA, eicosapentaenoic acid (20:5 n-3), docosapentaenoic acid (22:5 n-3), and docosahexaenoic acid (22:6 n-3) compared to the RBCM of BO-, CO-, and EO-fed mice. EO-fed mice had the highest RBCM content of mead acid (20:3 n-9) than BO-, CO-, and FO-fed mice, respectively (P < 0.0001). RBCM of FO- and EO-fed mice contained a lower proportion of arachidonic acid (20:4 n-6) than RBCM of BO- and CO-fed mice (P < 0.05), respectively. Overall, there were only marginal differences in the RBCM FA composition and proportions between male and female mice with the exception of mead acid which was 25% higher in the RBCM of male mice than in female mice (P < 0.0001). In conclusion, RBCM FA cannot be reliably used as a marker of a dietary FA source.