Metabolic effect of omega 3 fatty acids in health and chronic kidney disease
Omega 3 fatty acids play an important modulatory role in metabolic and inflammatory responses, the progression of atherosclerosis and gene expression. Recent studies suggest their beneficial impact on adipocyte morphology and function. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients have an increased cardiovascular morbi-mortality and suffer from a cluster of metabolic disorders. On the basis of previous studies there are reasons to suggest that omega 3 supplementation may offer a host of benefits to CKD patients. Unfortunatly, published studies on the effect of such supplementation are characterized by supra physiological omega 3 doses, that may be difficult to implement for extended periods in one hand and in the other hand the metabolic effect of different doses of omega 3 hasn’t been studied in detail. Simple dietary modifications can help achieve the recommended n-6/n-3 ratio in healthy subjects. In CKD patients supplementation with n-3 shows a differential dose response effect. Further studies are required to test the faisability and metabolic impact of dietary modifications in order to decrease n-6/n-3 ratio and to assess the long term effect of omega supplementation in CKD patients. Finally the molecular pathways implicated in this differential dose response should be assessed in animal models