Key Findings:
This study assessed the effects of ALA on blast transformation (changes in The B and T cells) after exposure to nonspecific mitogens (chemical substance that encourages a cell to commence cell division, triggering mitosis). A flaxseed oil diet suppressed cell-mediated immunity, specifically the proliferation of PBMNCs cultured with the T-cell mitogens PHA and Con A and the DHS skin response to recall antigens. ALA suppressed some of the indices of cell-mediated immunity without affecting any of the indices of humoral immunity tested. The authors suggest research in people with autoimmune diseases or chronic inflammations, for diseases like arthritis, lupus, and allergies.
ABSTRACT:
We examined the effect of dietary α-linolenic acid (ALA) on the indices of immunocompetence in 10 healthy free-living men (age 21-37 y) who consumed all meals at the Western Human Nutrition Research Center for 126 d. There was a stabilization period of 14 d at the start when all 10 subjects consumed basal diet (BD) and there were two intervention periods of 56 d each. Five of the subjects consumed the basal diet and the other five consumed flax-seed-oil diet (FD) during each intervention period. Feeding of FD suppressed the proliferation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells when they were cultured with phytohemagglutinin-P (P = 0.041) and concanavalin A (P = 0.054) and the delayed hypersensitivity response to seven recall antigens (NS). Concentrations of immunoglobulins in serum, C3, C4, salivary IgA, the numbers of helper cells, suppressor cells, and total T and B cells in the peripheral blood were not affected by the diets. (Authors abstract)