Lipidomic evidence that lowering the typical dietary palmitate to oleate ratio in humans decreases the leukocyte production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and muscle expression of redox-sensitive genes

• Published in: The Journal of nutritional biochemistry Vol. 26; no. 12; pp. 1599 - 1606
• Main Authors: Kien, C. Lawrence, Bunn, Janice Y., Fukagawa, Naomi K., Anathy, Vikas, Matthews, Dwight E., Crain, Karen I., Ebenstein, David B., Tarleton, Emily K., Pratley, Richard E., Poynter, Matthew E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01-08-2015
• ISSN: 0955-2863; 1873-4847
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jnutbio.2015.07.014

We recently reported that lowering the high, habitual palmitic acid (PA) intake in ovulating women improved insulin sensitivity and both inflammatory and oxidative stress.
In vitro
studies indicate that PA can activate both cell membrane toll-like receptor-4 and the intracellular Nucleotide Oligomerization Domain (Nod)-Like Receptor protein, NLRP3. To gain further insight into the relevance to human metabolic disease of dietary PA, we studied healthy, lean and obese adults, enrolled in a randomized, cross-over trial comparing 3-week, high PA (HPA) and low PA/high oleic acid (HOA) diets. After each diet, both hepatic and peripheral insulin sensitivity were measured, and we assessed cytokine concentrations in plasma and in supernatants derived from LPS-stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) as well as pro-inflammatory gene expression in skeletal muscle. Insulin sensitivity was unaffected by diet. Plasma concentration of tumor necrosis factor-α was higher during the HPA diet. Lowering the habitually high PA intake by feeding the HOA diet resulted in lower secretion of interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-18, IL-10, and tumor necrosis factor-α by PBMCs, as well as lower relative mRNA expression of
cJun
and
NLRP3
in muscle. Principal components analysis of 156 total variables coupled to analysis of covariance indicated that the mechanistic pathway for the differential dietary effects on PBMCs involved changes in the PA/OA ratio of tissue lipids. Our results indicate that lowering the dietary and tissue lipid PA/OA ratio resulted in lower leukocyte production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and muscle expression of redox-sensitive genes, but the relevance to diabetes risk is uncertain.