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. 2015 Nov 13;6(6):660-4.
doi: 10.3945/an.115.009944. Print 2015 Nov.

Increase in adipose tissue linoleic acid of US adults in the last half century

Stephan J Guyenet  1 , Susan E Carlson  2
Affiliations

Increase in adipose tissue linoleic acid of US adults in the last half century

Stephan J Guyenet et al. Adv Nutr. .

Abstract

Linoleic acid (LA) is a bioactive fatty acid with diverse effects on human physiology and pathophysiology. LA is a major dietary fatty acid, and also one of the most abundant fatty acids in adipose tissue, where its concentration reflects dietary intake. Over the last half century in the United States, dietary LA intake has greatly increased as dietary fat sources have shifted toward polyunsaturated seed oils such as soybean oil. We have conducted a systematic literature review of studies reporting the concentration of LA in subcutaneous adipose tissue of US cohorts. Our results indicate that adipose tissue LA has increased by 136% over the last half century and that this increase is highly correlated with an increase in dietary LA intake over the same period of time.

Keywords: US; change over time; dietary linoleic acid; linoleic acid; subcutaneous adipose tissue.

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Conflict of interest statement

Author disclosures: SJ Guyenet and SE Carlson, no conflicts of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
US adipose tissue LA concentration, 1959–2008. Increase in adipose tissue LA concentration over time across all subcutaneous sites (R2 = 0.83; P < 0.001) (A). Increase in adipose tissue LA concentration over time, buttocks and abdominal subcutaneous only (R2 = 0.86; P < 0.001) (B). LA, linoleic acid.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Correlation between adipose tissue LA concentration (all sites) and dietary LA intake, 1959–1999. Adipose tissue LA concentration is strongly correlated with dietary LA intake (R2 = 0.81; P < 0.001). LA, linoleic acid.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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