ABSTRACT
SABREEN F. FOSTOK, RIMA A. EZZEDDINE, FADIA R. HOMAIDAN, JAMAL A. AL-SAGHIR, RALPH G. SALLOUM, NAJAT A. SALIBA, AND RABIH S. TALHOUK
3.1 BACKGROUND
Dietary supplements are used as preventive means to maintain a healthy state. Among them, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), specifically members of the omega (n)-3 series and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), have become the focus of extensive nutritional research in the last decade [1-6] due to their reported anti-inflammatory properties. Indeed, CLA and the n-3 eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) were found to reduce the levels of many inflammatory mediators, including cytokines: interleukin (IL)-1, IL-6 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, eicosanoids: prostaglandins (PGs), thromboxanes (TXs) and leukotrienes (LTs), enzymes: cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 and 5-lipoxygenase (LOX), adhesion molecules: E-selectin, intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM)-1 and vascular cell adhesion molecule (VCAM)-1 and ma-
trix metalloproteinases (MMPs) [7-10]. Clinically, reports have suggested that supplementation with n-3 fatty acids (FAs) has beneficial effects in chronic inflammatory diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and psoriasis [11]. Moreover, adding n-3 FAs to the diet of patients with hypertriglyceridemia is now recognized as an efficient triglyceride-lowering therapeutic measure [12]. CLA has been shown to possess similar effects, though the safety and efficacy of CLA dietary supplements is still under investigation [9,13,14].
