Objective: Overweight and obesity induce metabolic disorder which raised the risk of coronary artery disease (CAD). The fish fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexenoic acid (DHA) is protective against fatal CAD. Yellow-Stripe Scad (YSS) is a local Malaysian fish which rich in EPA/DHA. This study aimed to assess the impact of Salmon and YSS supplementations on cardiovascular disease risk and platelet cytokines in overweight and obese individuals.
Methods: Healthy overweight Malaysian adults (n = 45), aged 21-55 (29.28 ±8.17), were recruited for 6-month cross-over trial. They were randomized equally to receive eight weeks of either steamed whole YSS/baseline fish as group-I or salmon/baseline fillet as group-II, for three days per week, to obtain approximately 7000 mg EPA+DHA. The diets were switched after an eight-week washout period. Their anthropometric measurements, serum lipid profile and platelet cytokines level were monitored serially.
Results: There was no significant difference in respondents’ BMI for the group I & II (p > 0.05). There was a significant difference in the serum leptin and decreased lipid profile (TC, LDL-C, TG, VLDL-C) and an increased in HDL-C for both group I &II (p < 0.05). A significant difference in the platelet cytokines (P-selectin, sCD40L and IL-1β) were observed in group I (p < 0.05) but not in group II (p > 0.05).
Conclusion: Both YSS and salmon fishes demonstrated the health benefit of omega-3 fatty acid, particularly on serum leptin and lipid profile. However, the EPA and DHA appear to have differential effects on platelet-related cytokines. Thus the presumptive role of fatty acid supplementation in modulating cardiovascular disease risk is needed to be confirmed by larger clinical studies.