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Review
. 2019 Apr 16;18(1):101.
doi: 10.1186/s12944-019-1039-y.

Intake of arachidonic acid-containing lipids in adult humans: dietary surveys and clinical trials

Hiroshi Kawashima  1
Affiliations
Review

Intake of arachidonic acid-containing lipids in adult humans: dietary surveys and clinical trials

Hiroshi Kawashima. Lipids Health Dis. .

Abstract

Long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFAs) have important roles in physiological homeostasis. Numerous studies have provided extensive information about the roles of n-3 LCPUFA, such as docosahexaenoic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid. Arachidonic acid (ARA) is one of the major n-6 LCPUFAs and its biological aspects have been well studied. However, nutritional information for ARA is limited, especially in adult humans. This review presents a framework of dietary ARA intake and the effects of ARA supplementation on LCPUFA metabolism in adult humans, and the nutritional significance of ARA and LCPUFA is discussed.

Keywords: Arachidonic acid; Dietary survey; Docosahexaenoic acid; Eicosapentaenoic acid; Long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

HK is an employee of the Suntory Holdings Group.

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Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Scheme of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid (LCPUFA) metabolism. LCPUFA in the body has two origins. One is the direct incorporation from dietary animal foods, and the other is the biosynthesis from n-6 or n-3 precursor PUFA, linoleic acid (LA) or α–linolenic acid (ALA), respectively. All the fatty acids including LCPUFA are mainly metabolized to CO2 by β–oxidation and excreted in the breath
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Correlation between the dose of ARA supplementation and the change of plasma ARA composition. The change of plasma ARA composition was calculated from Table 5. Neither the number of participants, supplementation period nor the existence or non-existence of DHA/EPA was taken into account. Data from individual studies are indicated with the same symbol
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