Adipose tissue content of n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids tied to mortality

Adipose tissue content of linoleic acid displays an inverse relationship with all-cause death, while that of arachidonic acid is associated with higher all-cause mortality, reveals a study.

A group of researchers conducted a prospective cohort study, including a random sample of 4,663 participants from the Danish diet, cancer, and health cohort between 1993 and 1997. They obtained data on all-cause mortality from the nationwide Danish civil registration system.

At recruitment, the researchers collected an adipose tissue biopsy from the buttock of participants and analysed this for fatty acid composition using gas chromatography. Cox proportional hazard regression was used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) with 95 percent confidence interval (CI).

Overall, 1,160 participants died during a median follow-up of 21 years. The median adipose tissue content of linoleic acid was 10.60, while that of arachidonic acid was 0.36 percent.

Multivariate analyses revealed a statistically significant inverse association between adipose tissue content of linoleic acid and all-cause mortality (p<0.001). On the other hand, the adipose tissue content of arachidonic acid showed an association with all-cause mortality (p=0.078), but this did not reach statistical significance.

When comparing the highest with the lowest quartile, the HR for mortality in adipose tissue was 0.76 (95 percent CI, 0.64–0.90) for linoleic acid and 1.28 (95 percent CI, 1.07–1.53) for arachidonic acid.

“Adipose tissue content of linoleic acid was inversely associated with all-cause mortality, whereas adipose tissue content of arachidonic acid was associated with a higher all-cause mortality,” the researchers said.