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Omega-6 Fatty Acids

Biomarkers for Diet and Chronic Diseases

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Biomarkers in Nutrition
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Abstract

Omega-6 fatty acids are involved in a series of biological processes including inflammation, immune function, and carcinogenesis. Omega-6 fatty acids are closely related to multiple chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, asthma, autoimmune diseases, and cancer, however, the evidence is controversial. Omega-6 fatty acids are also responsive to dietary intake and therefore serve as biomarkers for dietary intake. This chapter provides a narrative review of omega-6 fatty acids as biomarkers for major chronic diseases, summarizes the usefulness and limitations of omega-6 fatty acids as biomarkers in epidemiological research and clinical applications, with implicatoins for using omega-6 fatty acids as biomarkers for disease prediction, dietary interventions and primary health care.

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Abbreviations

5-HETE:

5 hydroxyeicosatetraenoic

AA:

Arachidonic acid

CHD:

Coronary heart disease

CVD:

Cardiovascular disease

D5D:

Delta-5-desaturase

D6D:

Delta-6-desaturase

DGLA:

Dihomo-γ-linolenic acid

GLA:

γ-linolenic acid

IL:

Interleukin

JIA:

Juvenile idiopathic arthritis

LA:

Linoleic acid

LT:

Leukotrienes

LXA4:

Lipoxin A4

MI:

Myocardial infarction

MS:

Multiple sclerosis

PUFAs:

Polyunsaturated fatty acids

RA:

Rheumatoid arthritis

SLE:

Systemic lupus erythematosus

T2D:

Type 2 diabetes

TNF-α:

Tumor necrosis factor-α

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Correspondence to Jie V. Zhao .

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© 2022 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

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Huang, X., Zhao, J.V. (2022). Omega-6 Fatty Acids. In: Patel, V.B., Preedy, V.R. (eds) Biomarkers in Nutrition . Biomarkers in Disease: Methods, Discoveries and Applications. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07389-2_25

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