Abstract
Altering the fatty acid (FA) composition in the skin by dietary fish oil could provide therapeutic benefits. Although it has been shown that fish oil supplementation enhances EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) abundance in the skin, comprehensive skin FA profiling is needed. We established a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry method, which allows precise quantification of FA profile using small (<24 mm2 for mice and <12 mm2 for humans) skin specimens that can be readily obtained from live mice and humans. We determined mouse skin FA composition after 2, 4 and 8 weeks of consuming a control diet or a diet supplemented with fish oil. Fish oil markedly enhanced EPA and DHA in mouse skin within 2 weeks, and this increase plateaued after 4 weeks. The FA composition in mouse skin was different from that of serum, indicating that skin has homeostatic control of FA metabolism. Mice fed the control diet designed to simulate Western human diet displayed similar skin FA composition as that of humans. The present study presents a validated method for FA quantification that is needed to investigate the mechanisms of actions of dietary treatments in both mouse and human skin.
Highlights
Coefficient correlation incorporation of EPA and DHA into the skin[19,20,21]
fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) can be separated by gas chromatography (GC) and analyzed by a flame ionization detector (FID) or an electron ionization mass spectrometry (EI-MS)
We established a method of Fatty acid (FA) extraction coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) for quantifying skin FA profiles, which comprised eleven FAs
Summary
Coefficient correlation incorporation of EPA and DHA into the skin[19,20,21]. While these studies have shown that fish oil intake leads to increased EPA and DHA abundance, the effects of fish oil intake on the complete FA profile in the skin remain unclear. The other limitation is that only a small size of skin specimen can be obtained from live human and experimental animals. These obstacles demand an effective extraction method and a sensitive quantification method to determine FA profiles in the skin. FID is well-established and probably most commonly used for FA analysis, EI-MS has been increasingly used in recent years, especially to analyze low abundant FAs or small biological specimens since EI-MS has enhanced sensitivity and provides confirmation of analytes[10,22,23]. Since the aim of our study was to investigate the influence of fish oil on the composition of major FAs, we did not include the stearic acid in the present study
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