Effect of diacylglycerol on postprandial serum triacylglycerol concentration: a meta-analysis

Diacylglycerol (DAG) supplementation has been shown to be associated with the reduction of postprandial triacylglycerol (TAG) concentration, although the extent of the association is uncertain. We quantitatively examined the effect of dietary DAG on postprandial serum TAG concentration by conducting a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Potential papers were initially searched for in the electronic databases of Medline, Embase and Cochrane library. Inclusion criteria required the trial to be randomized with DAG as the treatment group, and TAG as the control group. Information was extracted independently by two investigators and the effect of DAG on postprandial TAG concentration was examined in Review Manager 4.2. Seven papers were included in the statistic pooling. DAG supplementation reduced the increment of postprandial TAG concentration significantly at postprandial 2 h (Weighted mean difference (WMD) -0.07 mmol/L; 95% CI -0.13 to 0.00 mmol/L; P = 0.05), 4 h (WMD -0.15 mmol/L; 95% CI -0.24 to -0.06 mmol/L; P = 0.002) and 6 h (WMD -0.14 mmol/L; 95% CI -0.23 to -0.05 mmol/L; P = 0.002). Linear regression showed that the effect of DAG was positively correlated with the daily dosage at 2 h (P = 0.095) and 6 h (P = 0.053) after lipid loading. In conclusion, compared with TAG oil, DAG reduced the postprandial serum TAG concentration at 2 h, 4 h and 6 h postprandial and was positively correlated with daily dosage.