The team led by Dr. May Faraj, Professor of Nutrition at Université de Montréal and Director of the Nutrition, Lipoproteins and Cardiometabolic Diseases Research Unit at the Montréal Clinical Research Institute (IRCM), sheds new light on the role of marine-source omega-3 supplementation in treating adipose tissue inflammation and reducing the risk for cardiometabolic diseases like Type 2 diabetes.
A promising advancement
Recently published in the scientific journal Scientific Reports, the study reveals that subjects with high numbers of blood low-density lipoproteins (LDL) - commonly known as "bad cholesterol" - have higher inflammation in their adipose tissue than those with low LDL. The team also demonstrated that, in subjects with high blood LDL, adipose tissue inflammation was associated with abnormalities in carbohydrate (sugar) and fat metabolism that increase the risk for Type 2 diabetes. Furthermore, by combining clinical and basic research, the study revealed that fish-oil omega-3 supplementation was effective in inhibiting the effects of LDL on adipose tissue inflammation and its association to risk factors for Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Omega-3 supplementation also improved the anomalies in carbohydrate and fat metabolism in all subjects.
An available and affordable nonprescription omega-3 supplementation can thus be a highly effective strategy for the treatment of adipose tissue inflammation and prevention of its associated diseases such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, especially in people with high blood LDL numbers.
Why it's important
Diabetes is a complex chronic disease that occurs when the body does not produce enough insulin or can no longer respond to its action. As a result, diabetes reduces the body's ability to metabolize sugar, fats and proteins. Diabetes affects 529 million people of all ages and backgrounds worldwide, with a majority presenting the Type 2. Beyond its daily burden, Type 2 diabetes increases the risk of developing various cardiovascular, kidney and eye diseases, and remains the world's leading cause of disability. Importantly, most Canadians do not consume enough omega-3 (EPA and DHA) from the diet and have low levels of EPA and DHA in their blood.
The good news is that Type 2 diabetes is preventable and excellent research work like that of Dr. May Faraj can help achieve that by increasing blood EPA and DHA.
In-depth
To understand how LDL and omega-3 impact the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, Dr. Faraj's team recruited 40 healthy volunteers for a clinical study between 2013 and 2019. Of these, 33 volunteers completed a 12-week intervention with omega-3 supplementation providing 2.7 g of EPA and DHA in fish-oil per day. This dose of EPA and DHA is within the range recommended for supplementation by Health Canada.
The Faraj team found that EPA and DHA supplementation:
- Improved the body's secretion of insulin in response to increased blood glucose and its clearance of blood fat after a high-fat meal.
- Hindered subjects' LDL ability to trigger inflammation in their own adipose tissue.
- Eliminated the link between adipose tissue inflammation induced by LDL, or other metabolic and microbial inflammatory triggers, with several risk factors for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.
The higher were the levels of EPA and DHA in the blood, the better was the treatment of the cardiometabolic risk factors. Moreover, the team was able to corroborate these observations with laboratory experiments (in culture) using subjects' own LDL, adipose tissue and omega-3, successfully reproducing the effects observed during the omega-3 intervention.
About Dr. May Faraj's Research
For over a decade, Dr. Faraj's work at the IRCM has advanced the understanding of the role of LDL in Type 2 diabetes, thus extending their traditional role in cardiovascular disease. Her lab's work, which was confirmed by large epidemiological studies, indicates that high numbers of LDL (measured by blood apoB) are a cause and not only a consequence of Type 2 diabetes. This clinical trial with EPA and DHA further uncovers a mechanism by which LDL promote the risk for Type 2 diabetes as well as how to treat it using omega-3.
About this study
To learn more about the study: EPA and DHA inhibit LDL-induced upregulation of human adipose tissue NLRP3 inflammasome/IL-1β pathway and its association with diabetes risk factors | Scientific Reports.
This work was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI).
