Taking a daily omega-3 supplement containing 460 mg EPA and 380 mg DHA for one year in adults aged 50–65 lowers specific inflammatory signaling molecules in the blood by 28–40% and increases the...
Mechanism
Synthesis from 1 study
Taking omega-3 supplements for a year puts more of these fats into your cell membranes. When your body needs to calm down inflammation, it uses those fats to make special signals that turn off the chemicals causing swelling and pain. This is why the harmful inflammatory markers go down while the...
Most probable mechanism
When people take omega-3 supplements daily for a year, the EPA and DHA from the pills get built into the membranes of their cells. When inflammation happens, these omega-3 fats are pulled out of the membranes and turned into special molecules that tell the body to calm down the inflammation. These new molecules block the production of other molecules that cause swelling and pain, leading to lower levels of those harmful chemicals in the blood.
Dietary EPA and DHA from supplementation are absorbed into the bloodstream and incorporated into phospholipid membranes of immune and endothelial cells
Upon inflammatory activation, phospholipase enzymes release EPA and DHA from membrane phospholipids
EPA and DHA are metabolized by lipoxygenase and cyclooxygenase enzymes into specialized pro-resolving mediators (SPMs) such as Resolvin D1 and Resolvin D4
SPMs bind to specific G-protein-coupled receptors on immune cells, triggering signaling that promotes phagocytosis of apoptotic cells and reduces production of pro-inflammatory mediators like PGD2, 5-HETE, and 12-HETE
Evidence from Studies
Supporting (1)
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