Background: Both laboratory and clinical studies have shown that dietary lipids may affect immunologic responses. This study was conducted to compare different classes of long-chain unsaturated fatty acids for their effect on allograft survival in animals receiving a donor-specific transfusion and a short course of low-dose cyclosporine (CsA).
Methods: Heterotopic ACI strain cardiac allografts were transplanted to Lewis strain rat recipients given diets with different lipid composition. In experiment 1, animals received CsA for 14 days and different diets were enriched with lipids with high concentrations of omega-3, omega-6, or omega-9 fatty acids. In experiment 2, animals received CsA for only 8 days and different diets were enriched with corn oil (omega-6), canola oil (omega-3 and omega-9), fish oil (omega-3) or a mixture of sunflower oil and fish oil (omega-3 and omega-9).
Results: In experiment 1, animals receiving the diet with 30% sunflower oil had the best allograft survival (200+/-42 days vs. 53+/-8 days for regular chow plus donor-specific transfusion and CsA, P<0.05). In experiment 2, diets containing canola oil (a mixture of omega-3 and omega-9 fatty acids) were associated with the best survival (P=0.0011 vs. regular chow).
Conclusion: Dietary omega-3 and omega-9 fatty acids both enhanced cardiac allograft survival in a stringent rat strain combination. Canola oil is a convenient oil for administering both alpha-linoleic acid (omega-3) and oleic acid (omega-9) in a palatable form for human consumption. Further investigation of the potential usefulness of lipids in transplant therapy is warranted.