academic Sagami Women's University Sagamihara, Kanagawa, Japan
Background: Pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) is a fatal venous thromboembolism that occurs after deep vein thrombosis (DVT). Many of the fatal cases die suddenly within a very short time, making it difficult to treat and important to prevent. In our separate study, we found that dietary n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) effectively prevented DVT in mice.
Aims: In this study, we investigated whether dietary supplementation of n-3PUFAs could also prevent PTE in mice.
Methods: Male C57BL/6J mice were divided into four groups: n-3 PUFA-free diet group (control), α-linolenic acid-containing diet (ALA) group, eicosapentaenoic acid-containing diet (EPA) group, and docosahexaenoic acid-containing diet (DHA) group. After two weeks of feeding on each diet, PTE was induced in mice by intravenous infusion of a collagen + epinephrine mixture that induces platelet aggregation or a tissue factor reagent that activates extrinsic coagulation. We recorded survival time until 20 minutes after the infusion and determined the degree of lung vascular occlusion.
Results: In the collagen + epinephrine-induced PTE model, EPA supplementation was particularly effective, improving survival rate, survival time, and lung vascular occlusion score compared to the control group. DHA supplementation had a similar effect, although less than EPA supplementation. In contrast, ALA supplementation had a limited effect, improving only survival rate. In the tissue factor-induced PTE model, only ALA supplementation was effective in improving the symptoms compared to the control group. In contrast, EPA and DHA supplementation had a weak effect and did not significantly reduce the symptoms.
Conclusion(s): Our results indicate that dietary n-3 PUFAs ameliorate not only DVT but also PTE in mice. It has been suggested that ALA may inhibit blood coagulation by a specific mechanism other than EPA and DHA.
