DIETARY CHIA OIL INTAKE INCREASES RETROPERITONEAL FAT RICH IN OMEGA 3 FATTY ACIDS

MEDINA, ANALIA; SIERRA, LILIANA; VANNIEUWENHOVE, CARINA; SAAD DE SCHOOS, SILVIA; MEDINA, MIRTA; JEREZ, SUSANA

Congreso; XXXIII Jornada Anual de la Asociación de Biología de Tucumán; 2016

In previous work we showed that a diet enriched with 10% chia oil improves vascular function in conditions of hypercholesterolemia. The aim of this study was to analyze whether the accumulation of fatty acid (FA) n-3 in the retroperitoneal fat (RF) may account for the beneficial effect of chia oil. Male rabbits were fed either a control diet (CD), or a high cholesterol diet 1% (HD), or CD enriched with 10% chia oil (CD-Ch) or a high cholesterol plus 10% chia oil diet (HD-Ch) during 6 weeks. Nutritional and FA composition of each diet were analyzed. Hemodynamic: blood pressure, heart rate and biochemical: total cholesterol, HDL, LDL, triglycerides parameters were measured. After animals sacrifice, RF was extracted and FA was measured by gas chromatography. CD-Ch and HD-Ch added 25% calories to CD, increased RF, did not modify final weight, blood pressure, heart rate, total cholesterol, HDL or LDL levels and decreased triglycerides. RF-analysis showed decreased saturated and monounsaturated FA and increased total polyunsaturated FA with high levels of linolenic acid (n-3) and reduced levels of linoleic acid (n-6). Therefore, a significant reduction of the n-6/n-3 ratio was found. Taking into account that cardiovascular risk factors are positively correlated with n-6/n-3 ratio, results from this work imply that the reservoir of FA n-3 in the RF may contribute to the protective effects of dietary chia oil intake.