N Engl J Med. 1985 May 9;312(19):1217-24.  

Effect of dietary enrichment with eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acids on

in vitro neutrophil and monocyte leukotriene generation and neutrophil function.

Lee TH, Hoover RL, Williams JD, Sperling RI, Ravalese J 3rd, Spur BW, Robinson

DR, Corey EJ, Lewis RA, Austen KF.

The effects of dietary fish-oil fatty acids on the function of the

5-lipoxygenase pathway of peripheral-blood polymorphonuclear leukocytes and

monocytes were determined in seven normal subjects who supplemented their usual

diet for six weeks with daily doses of triglycerides containing 3.2 g of

eicosapentaenoic acid and 2.2 g of docosahexaenoic acid. The diet increased the

eicosapentaenoic acid content in neutrophils and monocytes more than sevenfold,

without changing the quantities of arachidonic acid and docosahexaenoic acid.

When the neutrophils were activated, the release of [3H]arachidonic acid and its

labeled metabolites was reduced by a mean of 37 per cent, and the maximum

generation of three products of the 5-lipoxygenase pathway was reduced by more

than 48 per cent. The ionophore-induced release of [3H]arachidonic acid and its

labeled metabolites from monocytes in monolayers was reduced by a mean of 39 per

cent, and the generation of leukotriene B4 by 58 per cent. The adherence of

neutrophils to bovine endothelial-cell monolayers pretreated with leukotriene B4

was inhibited completely, and their average chemotactic response to leukotriene

B4 was inhibited by 70 per cent, as compared with values determined before the

diet was begun and six weeks after its discontinuation. We conclude that diets

enriched with fish-oil-derived fatty acids may have antiinflammatory effects by

inhibiting the 5-lipoxygenase pathway in neutrophils and monocytes and

inhibiting the leukotriene B4-mediated functions of neutrophils.