PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Elisabetta Teopompi
AU  - Giovanna Pisi
AU  - Marina Aiello
AU  - Roberta Pisi
AU  - Paolo Mangano
AU  - Francesco Longo
AU  - Patrizia Rizè
AU  - Candida Tripodi
AU  - Valentina Fainardi
AU  - Enrico Clini
AU  - Alfredo Chetta
AU  - Angelo Sala
TI  - Is the unbalance between arachidonic acid and docosahexaenoic acid a reversible condition in adults With cystic fibrosis?
DP  - 2013 Sep 01
TA  - European Respiratory Journal
PG  - P2112
VI  - 42
IP  - Suppl 57
4099  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/42/Suppl_57/P2112.short
4100  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/42/Suppl_57/P2112.full
SO  - Eur Respir J2013 Sep 01; 42
AB  - In patients with cystic fibrosis (CF), a significant reduction in docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), a fat acid involved in inflammatory changes, may occur. We assessed the arachidonic acid (AA) and DHA metabolites in sputum of 15 CF patients, as compared to 10 COPD patients, and their changes after ten weeks of DHA supplementation. At baseline all subjects were assessed by nutritional status, spirometry, sputum sample to measure leukotriene B4 (LTB4), prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), 15-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (15-HETE), 17-hydroxydocosahexaenoic acid (17OH-DHA), 15-HETE/17OH-DHA ratio, and blood sample to measure DHA/AA ratio and HUFA index. CF patients repeated assessments ten weeks after DHA-supplementation and after ten weeks without. As compared to COPD patients, CF subjects showed increased concentrations of LTB4 (p < 0.0001), PGE2 (p < 0.0001), 15-HETE (p < 0.0001), while the concentrations of the 17OH-DHA was not different in the two groups. Following DHA supplementation, CF subjects had a tendency to decrease in LTB4 and PGE2 and to increase in 17OH-DHA concentrations, and a significant reduction in 15-HETE (p = 0.0137). At the end of the washout period, LTB4, PGE2, 15-HETE, and 17OH-DHA recovered toward baseline values. In blood samples after DHA supplementation, DHA/AA ratio and HUFA index significantly increased (p = 0.05), while 15-HETE/17OH-DHA ratio significantly decreased (p = 0.01) compared to baseline. Our preliminary results have shown that in CF patients an impairment in fatty acid metabolism, characterized by increase in AA metabolites and decrease in DHA, may occur as compared to COPD patients and was partially corrected by DHA supplementation.