title: Biomarkers of dairy fat intake and risk of cardiovascular disease: A systematic review and meta analysis of prospective studies.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Circulating biomarkers of dairy fat provide objective measures of dairy fat intake and facilitate conclusions relevant to populations with different diets and susceptibility to cardiovascular diseases (CVD).
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To assess the relationship between circulating pentadecanoic acid (15:0), heptadecanoic acid (17:0) and trans-palmitoleic acid (trans-16:1n-7) and the risk of CVD.
  
  
  METHODS
  Pubmed, Medline and Embase were searched for prospective cohort studies of the relationship between biomarkers of dairy fat and CVD risk, which included coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, heart failure and CVD mortality, supplemented by bibliographies of retrieved articles and previous reviews. For each study, relative risks (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were extracted and pooled with the random effect model.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Thirteen studies involving 7,680 CVD cases were included. The pooled RRs of the risk of CVD for the top third vs. bottom third 15:0, 17:0 and trans-16:1n-7 level were 0.94 (95%CI: 0.77-1.15), 0.82 (95% CI: 0.68-0.99) and 0.82 (95% CI: 0.67-1.02), respectively. Subgroup analysis indicated that there were no associations between the concentration of 15:0 with CHD and stroke, but a negative relationship with heart failure (RR = 0.72, 95% CI: 0.55-0.95). Null association was observed between circulating 17:0 and trans-16:1n-7 level and subtypes of CVD except for only one study which reported a negative relationship between 17:0 and heart failure.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Higher dairy fat exposure is not associated with an increased risk of CVD.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Maternal and child health, School of Public Health , Sun Yat-sen University , Guangzhou , China.
authors.forename: Jingjing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: b Department of Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health , Guangzhou Medical University , Guangzhou , China.
authors.forename: Quan
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: c Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Research, School of Public Health , Southern Medical University , Guangzhou , China.
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Kwame Amakye
authors.affiliation: d Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Food, Nutrition, and Health, School of Public Health , Sun Yat-sen University , Guangzhou , China.
authors.forename: Yixiang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Su
authors.affiliation: c Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Research, School of Public Health , Southern Medical University , Guangzhou , China.
authors.forename: Zheqing
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D015415:Biomarkers; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000209:etiology*; D003611:Dairy Products; D004041:Dietary Fats / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D006801:Humans; D012307:Risk Factors
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D004041:Dietary Fats
keywords: Dairy fat; biomarker; cardiovascular diseases; pentadecanoic acid, heptadecanoic acid; trans-palmitoleic acid