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Natural Rumen-Derived trans Fatty Acids Are Associated with Metabolic Markers of Cardiac Health

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Lipids

Abstract

Evidence suggests that industrial trans fatty acids (iTFA) impair lipid profiles while ruminant trans fatty acids (rTFA) may lower insulin resistance and blood pressure. The objective of this article was to determine if the plasma phospholipid percentage of rTFA is associated with a favorable cardiometabolic profile. We collected fasting blood samples from 200 individuals from Quebec city (QC, Canada) aged from 18 to 55 years old, including 100 obese (BMI ≥ 30 kg m−2) and 100 non-obese (BMI < 30 kg m−2) men and women. Fatty acid levels in plasma phospholipids were determined using gas chromatography. After separating the subjects into two groups, according to the median percentage of rTFA in plasma phospholipids, participants in the group with higher percentages of rTFA (0.86 ± 0.24 %) had higher adiponectin levels (p = 0.01) and a lower blood pressure (systolic, p = 0.005; diastolic, p = 0.04). In contrast, concentrations in plasma phospholipids of elaidic acid, a major iTFA, are positively correlated with glycemia in non-obese subjects (p = 0.01) and with both triacylglycerol (TAG) (p = 0.0007) and total cholesterol (TC) (p = 0.009) in obese subjects. These data suggest that rTFA may have beneficial effects on cardiometabolic risk factors conversely to their counterpart iTFA. Dietary sources of TFA should be taken into account in future cardiometabolic studies.

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Abbreviations

CLA:

Conjugated linoleic acid

CRP:

C-reactive protein

CVD:

Cardiovascular diseases

FA:

Fatty acid

HOMA-IR:

Homeostatic model of the assessment of insulin resistance

iTFA:

Industrial trans fatty acid

MetS:

Metabolic syndrome

PPAR-γ:

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma

rTFA:

Ruminant trans fatty acid

SFA:

Saturated fatty acids

T2D:

Type 2 diabetes

TAG:

Triacylglycerol

TC:

Total cholesterol

TFA:

trans Fatty acids

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all subjects who participated in the study for their excellent collaboration. We would like to thank Marie-Eve Bouchard, Steve Amireault, Diane Drolet and Dominique Beaulieu for their involvement in the recruitment of the subjects, the study coordination and data collection. We would also like to thank Line Berthiaume who performed gas chromatographic analyses to determine fatty acid profiles in plasma phospholipids. This study was supported by a grant from Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)-New Emerging Teams Programs (NET) (#OHN 63276). This study was also supported by a grant no# MOP-200609 from CIHR. MSD received a scholarship from the Centre de recherche en endocrinologie moléculaire et oncologique et génomique humaine (CREMOGH). MCV holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Genomics Applied to Nutrition and Health. IR holds a Junior 1 Research Scholarship from the Fond de Recherche du Québec-Santé (FRQ-S).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Endocrinology and Nephrology, T-4-55B, CHU de Québec Research Center, CHUL-2705, boul. Laurier, Québec, QC, G1V 4G2, Canada

    Marine S. Da Silva, Pierre Julien, Marie-Claude Vohl & Iwona Rudkowska

  2. Department of Kinesiology, Faculty of Medicine, Laval University, Quebec, Canada

    Marine S. Da Silva, Louis Pérusse & Iwona Rudkowska

  3. Institute of Nutrition and Functional Foods (INAF), Laval University, Quebec, Canada

    Louis Pérusse & Marie-Claude Vohl

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  1. Marine S. Da Silva
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  2. Pierre Julien
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  3. Louis Pérusse
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  4. Marie-Claude Vohl
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  5. Iwona Rudkowska
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Correspondence to Iwona Rudkowska.

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Da Silva, M.S., Julien, P., Pérusse, L. et al. Natural Rumen-Derived trans Fatty Acids Are Associated with Metabolic Markers of Cardiac Health. Lipids 50, 873–882 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11745-015-4055-3

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