Association between serum and brain fatty acid profiles in centenarians (821.2)

Abstract

Profiles of brain fatty acids (FA) may be important indicators of age‐related cognitive decline. There is limited data on brain FA profiles in centenarians. Serum FA may be related to brain FA profiles. The goal of this study was to test this hypothesis in centenarians. Tissue from the frontal, occipital, temporal cortices, and cerebellum were collected from decedents (n=40) in the Georgia Centenarian Study with available banked serum. Brain and serum FA were measured using gas chromatography. FA profiles were different between serum and brain (P<0.0001). On average, saturated FA (SFA) were predominant in the brain (47 mol%), followed by monounsaturated FA (MUFA) (23 mol%), n‐3 polyunsaturated (n‐3) FA (14 mol%, with 91% being docosahexaenoic acid), n‐6 polyunsaturated (n‐6) FA (12 mol%), and trans FA (0.7 mol%). N‐6 FA were highest in serum (38 mol%), followed by SFA (30 mol%), MUFA (25 mol%), n‐3 FA (3 mol %), and trans FA (3 mol%). Serum n‐3 FA were related to brain levels in the frontal (r=0.43, P<0.01) and temporal (r=0.35, P<0.05) cortices and cerebellum (r=0.41, P<0.05). Serum n‐3/n‐6 was related to brain n‐3/n‐6 in all regions (frontal: r=0.41, occipital: r=0.38, P<0.05; cerebellum: r=0.47, temporal: r=0.55, P<0.01). No other FA were related between serum and brain. The data suggest that both n‐3 FA and n‐3/n‐6 FA can be used as markers of brain fatty acid profiles.Grant Funding Source: Supported by: USDA (58‐1950‐0‐014), NIH (1P01‐AG17553), and Abbott Laboratories