title: Dietary alpha-linolenic acid and immunocompetence in humans.
abstract: We examined the effect of dietary alpha-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.affiliation: Western Human Nutrition Research Center, US Department of Agriculture, Presidio of San Francisco, CA 94129.
authors.forename: D S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Kelley
authors.forename: L B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Branch
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Love
authors.forename: P C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.forename: Y M
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Rivera
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Iacono
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000917:Antibody Formation; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004032:Diet; D006801:Humans; D006968:Hypersensitivity, Delayed / Q000276:immunology; D007111:Immunity, Cellular; D007121:Immunocompetence / Q000502:physiology*; D008042:Linolenic Acids / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D008297:Male; D017962:alpha-Linolenic Acid
chemical_list: D008042:Linolenic Acids; D017962:alpha-Linolenic Acid