The PBMC transcriptome profile after intake of oxidized versus high-quality fish oil: an explorative study in healthy subjects

BACKGROUND: Marine long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids are susceptible to oxidation, generating a range of different oxidation products with suggested negative health effects. The aim of the present study was to utilize sensitive high-throughput transcriptome analyses to investigate potential unfavorable effects of oxidized fish oil (PV: 18 meq/kg; AV: 9) compared to high-quality fish oil (PV: 4 meq/kg; AV: 3). METHODS: In a double-blinded randomized controlled study for seven weeks, 35 healthy subjects were assigned to 8 g of either oxidized fish oil or high quality fish oil. The daily dose of EPA+DHA was 1.6 g. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were isolated at baseline and after 7 weeks and transcriptome analyses were performed with the illuminaHT-12 v4 Expression BeadChip. RESULTS: No gene transcripts, biological processes, pathway or network were significantly changed in the oxidized fish oil group compared to the fish oil group. Furthermore, gene sets related to oxidative stress and cardiovascular disease were not differently regulated between the groups. Within group analyses revealed a more prominent effect after intake of high quality fish oil as 11 gene transcripts were significantly (FDR < 0.1) changed from baseline versus three within the oxidized fish oil group. CONCLUSION: The suggested concern linking lipid oxidation products to short-term unfavorable health effects may therefore not be evident at a molecular level in this explorative study. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01034423 ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12263-016-0530-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.