| Research Abstract |
While linoleic acid is essential for normal growth of animals, alpha-linolenic acid is important for the function of brain and nervous systems. The ratio between alpha-linolenate and linoleate in diets can affect the seriousness of various chronic diseases. Feeding the alpha-linolenic acid-rich diet inhibited the experimental cancer in animal models (mammary tumors, colon carcinoma, pancreatic tumors, pulmonary tumors, prostatic tumors and renal tumors), allergic disorders, thrombotic disorders (myocardial infarct, cerebral infarct and senile dementia), hypertension and cerebral hemorrhage.
Dietary enrichment with linoleate relieved symptoms of anti-glomerular basement membrane nephritis. On the other hand, there was no dietary effect on murine autoimmune lupus glomerulo-nephritis in female MRL/1 mice.
Endotoxin shock induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) combined with galactosamine was inhibited by high-linoleate diet, whereas the hepatitis induced by LPS alone was not affected by the bal
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ance of essential fatty acid in diets. Although there are complicate effects by the balance of alpha-linolenate /linoleate on symptoms of nephritis and endotoxin-shock, it was suggested that eicosanoids derived from linoleate had protective effects on some stage of acute inflammatory disorders.
Macrophages from mice fed a high alpha-linolenate diet produced 10-fold more tumor necrosis factor (TNF) in response to LPS stimulation than in a high linoleate diet group. This can be one of the reason for the difference in the essential fatty acid-dependent toxicity by endotoxin-galactosamine. The suppressive effect of alpha-linolenate rich diet on tumorigenesis may be based on this increase of TNF production.
Since an alpha-linolenate diet (perilla oil) contains low level of linoleate, feeding a perilla oil diet would affect the generative function. It was shown, however, that there was no significant difference in the duration of pregnancy, delivery intervals, stillbirth rates and embryonic and fetal development, indicating that perilla oil is safe and useful vegetable oil. Less
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