Omega-3 Fatty Acids Improve Indices of Vascular Stiffness in Men with Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm

Written by Chrystal Moulton, Staff Writer. Supplementation with omega-3 fatty acids significantly improved heart rate (p= 0.009) and pulse wave velocity (p= 0.014) in patients with abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA).

Abdominal aortic aneurysm is a vascular disease affecting roughly 1-3% of men over the age of 60 ¹. Similar to other cardiovascular conditions, Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is charactered by inflammation, breakdown of elastin, and negative changes in collagen ^2,3 ultimately leading to stiffening of the arterial walls ^2,4. The cyclical effects of these negative changes proliferate an already worsening condition as pressure builds within the artery leading to the subsequent aneurysm ^2,5. Although medical professionals are able to monitor the progress on this phenomenon clinically, there exists no pharmaceutical remedy to treat this particular vascular disease ⁵. Omega-3 fatty acids, specifically EPA and DHA, has demonstrated anti-inflammatory and vasoprotective effects in previous studies on cardiovascular disease and could serve as a nutraceutical therapy to combat deleterious effects of inflammation and other factors leading to AAA ⁶. In the current observational study, researchers evaluated the effect of daily Omega-3 fatty acid intake on parameters of vascular stiffness in patients with AAA. ⁷

Fifty men over the age of 60 were recruited for this study. Thirty patients with AAA (n=30) and 20 healthy men without AAA. Of these, the 30 participants with AAA were randomly assigned to a double-blind placebo control protocol as a sub study within this observational trial. Participants were given either an Omega-3 capsules (1.8g, 5:1 ratio DHA:EPA) or placebo (combination of corn, olive, and fish oil) taken daily for 12 weeks. Researchers evaluated heart rate, vascular stiffness, red blood cell distribution width (RDW), omega-3 index, and central blood pressure at baseline, week 3, and week 12. They also investigated the association between pulse wave velocity (which provides an augmentation index or a measure of arterial pressure) and AAA.

Researchers found that pulse wave velocity and the subsequent augmentation index was significantly higher in patients with AAA compared with their healthy cohorts (see Table 1).

Pulse wave velocity was also significantly associated with AAA even after adjusting for other variables between the AAA and control group (beta = 0.463, p = 0.012). In AAA patients at baseline, a significant positive correlation was found between red blood cell distribution width (RDW) and pulse wave velocity (r= 0.40, p= 0.047). Also, a significant negative correlation was found between pulse wave velocity and omega-3 index in AAA patients at baseline. Twelve-week supplementation with 1.8g of omega-3 fatty acids significantly reduced pulse wave velocity (p= 0.014) and heart rate (p= 0.009) in patients with AAA. No changes were observed in the placebo group.

In the end, researchers found that omega-3 supplementation provided significant improvement in vascular stiffness and resting heart rate in men with AAA. Further studies will be needed to observe the effects on women with AAA. Larger studies will also be needed to verify these results.

Source: Meital, Lara T., Karl Schulze, Rebecca Magee, Jill O’Donnell, Pankaj Jha, Chaim Y. Meital, Rebecca Donkin, Tom G. Bailey, Christopher D. Askew, and Fraser D. Russell. “Long Chain Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids Improve Vascular Stiffness in Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm: A Randomized Controlled Trial.” Nutrients 13, no. 1 (2021): 138.

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

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Posted May 25, 2021.

Chrystal Moulton BA, PMP, is a 2008 graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago. She graduated with a bachelor’s in psychology with a focus on premedical studies and is a licensed project manager. She currently resides in Indianapolis, IN.

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