Clinical studies on the effects of n-3 fatty acids on cells and eicosanoids in the cardiovascular system.

Epidemiological, clinical and experimental studies suggest that dietary fatty acids belonging to two different families, the n-6 and n-3 fatty acids, might be important nutritional factors contributing to the natural history of atherothrombotic and inflammatory disorders. The relationship of these dietary fatty acids to plasma and cell membrane phospholipid composition, the eicosanoid system and related lipid mediators, and the mechanisms involved in cell stimulus-response coupling (such as phospholipase C and phospholipase A2 activation and Ca2+ release) might reveal and modify processes underlying those disorders. It may thus open the development of new approaches to prevention and therapy.