Neuroprotective Effect of Docosahexaenoic Acid-Enriched Phospholipids in Experimental Diabetic Neuropathy

Created on 2021-08-06T23:40:40-05:00

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Diabetes impairs essential fatty acid metabolism by decreasing activities of Δ6 and Δ5 desaturases, enzymes that convert dietary linoleic acid (LA) and α-linolenic acid to long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), including γ-linolenic acid (GLA), arachidonic acid (AA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)
It was demonstrated recently that dietary supplementation with GLA (8,9) and with fish oil, containing EPA and DHA (9,10), prevented completely for GLA and partially for fish oil the diabetes-induced decrease in nerve conduction velocity (NCV), a physiological marker of diabetic neuropathy.
Nevertheless, we previously found that the preventive effect of fish oil on NCV and Na,K-ATPase activity is only partial in diabetic rats (10,17).
Moreover, fish oil treatment has been demonstrated to have some deleterious effects in retinopathy (18).