Associations of plasma n–3 polyunsaturated fatty acids with blood pressure and cardiovascular risk factors among Chinese

Abstract

The relationship between plasma fatty acid (FA) levels and hypertension in Chinese is not fully understood. The aim of this study was to examine relationships between plasma phospholipid (PL) FAs and hypertension in Chinese subjects. One thousand one hundred and fifty-four subjects in Hangzhou, China, were recruited in this cross-sectional study. Two hundred and fourteen (160 males, 54 females) subjects with hypertension and 940 (664 males, 276 females) healthy subjects were identified. The prevalence of hypertension in females (19.6%) was significantly higher than that in males (16.4%). Compared with healthy subjects, hypertensive subjects showed significantly lower plasma PL 22:5n–3 (p = 0.017), 22:6n–3 (p = 0.008), PL polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs; p < 0.001), n–3 PUFA (p = 0.015), n–6 PUFA (p < 0.001) and 20:4n–6 (p < 0.010). PL n–3 PUFA [odds ratio (OR) = 0.43, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.29–1.19] and n–3:n–6 (OR = 0.48, 95% CI = 0.12–1.86) were inversely associated with hypertension. However, plasma saturated fatty acid (SFA; OR = 2.01, 95% CI = 1.05–2.98) was significantly positively associated with hypertension. PL SFA was significantly positively associated with systolic blood pressure (p = 0.048), whereas plasma PL monounsaturated FA was significantly positively associated with diastolic blood pressure (DBP; p = 0.009) in hypertensive subjects. PL PUFA (p = 0.022) and n–3 PUFA (p = 0.047) were significantly negatively associated with DBP in hypertensive subjects. Our results suggest that plasma PL n–3 PUFA was significantly inversely associated with hypertension in Chinese. It would seem appropriate for hypertensive subjects to increase their dietary n–3 PUFA which may help reduce BP.

Keywords::

• cardiovascular diseases
• polyunsaturated fatty acid
• phospholipids
• prevalence
• hypertension

Declaration of interest: This work was supported by a grant from National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (No. N20080753), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 30972464) and the PhD Programs Foundation of Ministry of Education of China (No. 20070335025).TH and TS carried out the studies, analysed data and drafted the manuscript; TS, NC and DL participated in manuscript preparation and TH, TS, MLW and DL participated in the project design. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.