Unraveling the Complex Relationship Triad between Lipids, Obesity, and Inflammation

Table 2

Summary of supplementation studies examining the effects of dietary interventions with different fatty acids on biomarkers of inflammation.

Different dietary combinations	Duration of study	Changes in inflammatory biomarkers	Sample size	Reference
Control diet (30% fat) or experimental diets (39% fat with 8% substitution of oleic acid, trans fatty acid, saturated fatty acid, stearic acid, or trans + stearic acid)	5 weeks	Increase in CRP and E-selectin levels with transfat diet as compared with control; increase in fibrinogen in stearic acid diet versus control; no difference in any marker between oleic acid diet and control ()	50 health adult males	[12]
Experimental diets (30% fat) two-thirds fats substituted with soybean oil, semiliquid margarine, soft margarine, shortening, stick margarine, or butter	35 days	No effect on CRP with any dietary fat type ()	36 moderately hypercholesterolemic adults	[13]
High-fat diet (59% fat) or high carbohydrate diet (73% carbohydrates), with or without antioxidants	1 week apart, 4-day; study	Increase in IL-6, TNF-, ICAM-1, and VCAM-1 in healthy and diabetic subjects with high-fat meal; increased levels only in diabetics with high-carbohydrate meal ()	20 type 2 diabetic patients and 20 matched healthy subjects	[14]
Experimental diets (30% fat) two-thirds fats substituted with soybean oil, soybean oil based stick margarine, or butter	32 days	Increase in IL-6 and TNF, with stick margarine diet versus soybean oil diet ()	19 moderately; hypercholesterolemic adults	[15]
Low cholesterol/low-saturated fat diet 30% fat, 5% saturated fat, cholesterol <200 mg	8 weeks	Decrease in CRP levels in hypercholesterolemic patients as compared to baseline ()	35 patients with primary; hypercholesterolemia and 15 normal control subjects	[16]
15 mL linseed oil (8 grams ALA) or 15 mL safflower oil (11 grams LA)	12 weeks	Decrease in CRP, SAA, and IL-6 in ALA group; no effects with LA; ()	76 male dyslipidemic patients	[17]
ALA diet (6.5% ALA, 10.5% LA), LA diet (12.6% LA, 3.6% ALA), or AAD–low carb diet (7.7% LA, 0.8% ALA)	6 weeks	Decrease in CRP, VCAM-1, and E-selectin in ALA group versus LA; decreased ICAM-1 in ALA and LA groups versus AAD; ()	23 hypercholesterolemic adults	[18]
ALA-enriched (15% ALA, 46% LA) or LA-enriched (58% LA,; 0.3% ALA) margarine	2 years	Decrease in CRP in the ALA group versus LA () group	103 moderately; hypercholesterolemic adults	[19]
4 grams EPA + DHA, with or without atorvastatin (40 mg)	6 weeks	Decreased CRP and IL-6 with fish oil + atorvastatin, but not with; fish oil alone ()	48 obese individuals and 10 lean normolipidemic men	[20]
1.5 grams EPA + DHA, with or without 800 IU all-rac -tocopherol	12 weeks	No effects on biomarkers of inflammation ()	80 healthy subjects	[21]
1.35 grams of EPA + DHA or placebo capsules	6 weeks	No effects on biomarkers of inflammation ()	11 obese men	[22]
4 grams, DHA, or placebo	6 weeks	No effects on biomarkers of inflammation ()	51 treated-hypertensive type 2 diabetic subjects	[23, 24]
1.5 grams EPA + DHA or placebo	12 weeks	No effects on biomarkers of inflammation ()	43 men and 41; postmenopausal women	[25]
1.33 grams EPA + DHA or 2.56 grams EPA + DHA, or placebo	5 weeks	Decreased CRP and IL-6 with fish oil versus placebo ()	30 postmenopausal women using HRT	[26]
3.4 g CLA or 3.4 g purified 1012 CLA, or placebo D	12 weeks	Decreased CRP with 1012 CLA supplementation versus placebo ()	60 men with metabolic; syndrome	[27]
3.0 grams CLA isomer mixture or placebo	8 weeks	CLA decreased fibrinogen (); no effects on CRP, IL-6; ()	32 adults with diet-controlled type 2 diabetes	[28]
4.2 grams CLA isomer mixture or placebo	12 weeks	Increase in CRP with CLA mixture versus placebo (), no effects on TNF- and VCAM-1 ()	53 healthy volunteers	[29]

Polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA), arachidonic acid (AA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), gamma linolenic acid (GLA), DGLA-dihomo gamma linolenic acid (DGLA), cardiovascular disease (CVD), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF), IL-6-interleukin-6 (IL-6), cyclooxygenase (COX), long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC PUFA’s), linoleic acid (LA), C-reactive protein (CRP), vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1), toll-like receptor 4 (TLR 4), and activator protein 1 (AP-1).