Dietary α-linolenic acid and immunocompetence in humans

• Published in: The American journal of clinical nutrition Vol. 53; no. 1; pp. 40 - 46
• Main Authors: Kelley, DS, Branch, LB, Love, JE, Taylor, PC, Rivera, YM, Iacono, JM
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bethesda, MD Elsevier Inc 01.01.1991; American Society for Clinical Nutrition
• Subjects: ACIDE GRAS; ACIDE LINOLENIQUE; ACIDO LINOLENICO; ACIDOS GRASOS; Adult; alpha-Linolenic Acid; Analysis of Variance; Antibody Formation; Biological and medical sciences; cell-mediated immunity; Cells, Cultured; concanavalin A; CORPS GRAS; delayed hypersensitivity; Diet; DIETA; Dietary fat; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Fundamental immunology; GRASAS; HIPERSENSIBILIDAD RETARDADA; Humans; HYPERSENSIBILITE RETARDEE; Hypersensitivity, Delayed - immunology; immune status; IMMUNITE CELLULAIRE; Immunity, Cellular; Immunobiology; Immunocompetence - physiology; IMUNIDAD CELULAR; LECTINA; LECTINE; Linolenic Acids - administration & dosage; Male; Modulation of the immune response (stimulation, suppression); n-3 fatty acids; phytohemagglutinin-P; REGIME ALIMENTAIRE; REPONSE IMMUNITAIRE; RESPUESTA INMUNOLOGICA; α-linolenic acid; concanavalin A; α-linolenic acid; Dietary fat; immune status; n-3 fatty acids; humans; delayed hypersensitivity; phytohemagglutinin-P; cell-mediated immunity; Human; Diet; Immunomodulation; Cellular immunity; Immunocompetence; Humoral immunity; Linoleic acid
• ISSN: 0002-9165; 1938-3207
• DOI: 10.1093/ajcn/53.1.40

We examined the effect of dietary α-linolenic acid (ALA) on the indices of immunocompetence in 10 healthy free-living men (age 21–37 y) who consumed all meals at the Western Human Nutrition Research Center for 126 d. There was a stabilization period of 14 d at the start when all 10 subjects consumed basal diet (BD) and there were two intervention periods of 56 d each. Five of the subjects consumed the basal diet and the other five consumed flax-seed-oil diet (FD) during each intervention period. Feeding of FD suppressed the proliferation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells when they were cultured with phytohemagglutinin-P (P = 0.041) and concanavalin A (P = 0.054) and the delayed hypersensitivity response to seven recall antigens (NS). Concentrations of immunoglobulins in serum, C3, C4, salivary IgA, the numbers of helper cells, suppressor cells, and total T and B cells in the peripheral blood were not affected by the diets.