[Pathophysiology of and clinical significance of polyunsaturated fatty acids n-3 family]

Abstract

Polyunsaturated fatty acids of n-3 family play an important role in the prevention of ischemic heart disease, as was shown in many epidemiological as well as intervention studies. These fatty acids are essential and human organism is fully dependent on their dietary intake from chloroplast of green plants and fat of aquatic animals. Cardioprotective action of these acids results from their complex effect (antiarrhytmic, antithrombotic, antiinflammatory, hypolipidemic etc.). These acids can, with the exception of glucose homeostasis, favourably influence individual components of the metabolic syndrome. Beneficial effects of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids are supposed also in chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, psychiatric-neurological diseases and malignant tumours. In the case of rheumatoid arthritis, antiinflammatory effects of polyunsaturated fatty acids were proven. In general, favourable effects of the optimal income of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids can be explained by the influencing of cellular metabolic functions, incorporation into membrane phospholipids, modulation of enzymes and signal molecules as well as by direct impact on gene expression. Polyunsaturated fatty acids of n-3 family have high therapeutic potential, which results from the combined action on different levels of cell functions. In some diseases, their effect is nearly pharmacological - prevention of the sudden death and fatal myocardial infarction, treatment of hyper- and dyslipoproteinemias, suppression of the inflammatory activity in rheumatoid arthritis. In another group of diseases, they have supporting effect (prevention of the arterial hypertension in metabolic syndrome) and, finally, in the last one (psychiatric-neurological diseases and tumours), more data of defined clinical groups are necessary for final evaluation.