Triglyceride lowering in nephrotic syndrome patients consuming a fish oil concentrate

Abstract

Alterations in serum lipid including a significant decrease in triglyceride with or without a reduction in total cholesterol and increase of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol after dietary fish oil supplementation have been documented in recent literature. An attempt has been made to examine the effect of the n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids as eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, 20:5n-3) plus docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6n-3) on the serum lipids of human nephrotic syndrome patients. This patient group is typically hyperlipidemic, placing the patient at high atherosclerotic risk. In the present study, 9 nephrotic syndrome patients received an encapsulated fish lipid concentrate (MaxEPA) for 9 days. The level of serum triglyceride, total cholesterol, and HDL-cholesterol were measured at day 0, after 9 days of treatment, and 9 days after supplementation ceased. A significant decrease in serum triglyceride (by 31%) was observed, while there were no overall changes in the total cholesterol and HDL-cholesterol levels. Our results suggest that dietary fish oil supplementation may possibly offer benefit to some nephrotic syndrome patients since triglyceride-lowering is considered to have a protective effect against the development of cardiovascular disease.