Increasing dietary linoleic acid does not increase tissue arachidonic acid content in adults consuming Western-type diets: a systematic review.
Level 1 - systematic review of randomized trials
Systematic review of human clinical trials.
PubMed 21663641 · doi:10.1186/1743-7075-8-36
What was done
A systematic review was conducted to evaluate published peer-reviewed human clinical trials investigating the effects of altered dietary linoleic acid intake on arachidonic acid levels in adult plasma/serum and erythrocyte phospholipid pools.
What was found
Decreasing dietary linoleic acid by up to 90% was not significantly correlated with changes in plasma/serum phospholipid arachidonic acid levels (p = 0.39). Increasing dietary linoleic acid up to six-fold also showed no significant correlation with arachidonic acid levels (p = 0.72). A positive relationship was observed between dietary gamma-linolenic acid and dietary arachidonic acid intakes and changes in plasma/serum phospholipid arachidonic acid.
Why it matters
This review challenges the common assumption that higher dietary linoleic acid increases tissue arachidonic acid concentrations in adults consuming Western diets.
Limits
The abstract does not report the number of included studies, total participant sample size, study designs, or intervention durations. Measurements were restricted to circulating phospholipid pools rather than other tissues.
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