Fatty acid composition of skeletal muscle reflects dietary fat compositionin humans

• Background: It is still unknown whether the fatty acid composition of human skeletal muscle lipids is directly influenced by the fat composition of the diet.Objective: We investigated whether the fatty acid composition of the diet is reflected in the fatty acid profile of skeletal muscle phospholipids and triacylglycerols.Design: Thirty-two healthy adults (25 men and 7 women) included in a larger controlled, multicenter dietary study were randomly assigned to diets containing a high proportion of either saturated fatty acids (SFAs) [total fat, 36% of energy; SFAs, 18% of energy; monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs), 10% of energy] or MUFAs (total fat, 35% of energy; SFAs, 9% of energy; MUFAs, 19% of energy) for 3 mo. Within each diet group, there was a second random assignment to supplementation with fish oil capsules [containing 3.6 g n−3 fatty acids/d; 2.4 g eicosapentaenoic acid (20:5n−3) and docosahexaenoic acid (22:6n−3)] or placebo. A muscle biopsy sample was taken from the vastus lateralis muscle after the diet period. Parallel analyses of diet and supplementation effects were performed.Results: The proportions of myristic (14:0), pentadecanoic (15:0), heptadecanoic (17:0), and palmitoleic (16:1n−7) acids in the skeletal muscle phospholipids were higher and the proportion of oleic acid (18:1n−9) was lower in the SFA group than in the MUFA group. The proportion of total n−3 fatty acids in the muscle phospholipids was ≈2.5 times higher, with a 5 times higher proportion of eicosapentaenoic acid (20:5n−3), in subjects supplemented with n−3 fatty acids than in those given placebo. Similar differences were observed in the skeletal muscle triacylglycerols.Conclusion: The fatty acid composition of skeletal muscle lipids reflects the fatty acid composition of the diet in healthy men and women.

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