One of the goals of nutrigenomics is to understand how the human body responds to real foods through an integrated approach known as 'systems biology'. The scientists behind nutrigenomics investigate the response of individuals to food compounds through post-genomic and related technologies.
Post-genomic technologies use a more holistic perspective and utilize the information produced by sequencing the genome, thereby, allowing the health scientists to measure how what people eat interacts with their bodies, specifically the genes, metabolism and proteins.
One subject of nutrigenomics that scientists are conducting is omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oils. According to the latest study, omega-3 affects beneficially affects gene expression. In this study, Docosahexaenoic acid and Eicosapentaenoic acid or DHA and EPA respectively can affect gene expression to anti-atherogenic and anti-inflammatory status.
The study's lead researcher, Lydia Afman, revealed that there has been a demonstration of less pro-inflammatory gene expression profiles in peripheral blood mono-nuclear cells or PBMCs after having an intervention of fish oil in a healthy elderly population.
Because PBMCs are immune cells, they play an essential role in inflammation and development of heart diseases. Consequently, omega-3 fatty acids have protective effects on the health of the human heart.
Besides an enormous body of science that links DHA and EPA to improvement of cardiovascular health, the omega-3 fatty acids have also shown potentials in reducing risks of some cancers, ensuring good development of infant during pregnancy, and ameliorating mood and behavior. They are also known to affect the cognitive functions in adults, have an impact on the vascular health, and may prevent cerebro-vascular disease such as dementia.
Dr. Lydia Afman and her group from the Nutrition, Metabolism and Genomics Groups at Wageningen University enlisted 111 healthy Dutch elderly and randomly assigned them to one of the three groups to consume 1.8, and 0.4 grams of high-oleic acid sunflower oil each day, for six months. In the microarray analysis of gene expression in PBMCs, it has been discovered that the high EPA plus DHA supplement caused the certain gene expression, out of 1040 genes to modify, while the sunflower oil supplement changed gene expression of 298 genes.
The researchers added that out of these genes, there were 140 overlapping between the groups, resulting to 900 distinctively altered genes in the EPA plus DHA group. Moreover, the modified genes were included among the inflammatory and atherogenic-related pathways.
The study provided conclusive evidence of EPA plus DHA taken for 26 weeks altering the gene expression profiles of PBMCs to a more anti-inflammatory and anti-atherogenic status. The hardening of the arteries or atherosclerosis is a serious risk factor for cardio-vascular disease.
Dr. Afman concluded her research study with the statement that PBMC gene expression profiles are constant within individuals but differ among people in time. Hence, it is interesting to note that PBMCs gene expression profiles are vulnerable to nutritional alterations and denote consequences that could be difficult to measure using other techniques. Thus, the PBMC gene expression profiles are encouraging aspirant to be utilized as bio-markers for nutritional status.
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