Association of dietary fatty acids intake with pro-coagulation and inflammation in Saudi Adults

The aim of the study was to understand whether dietary fatty acids such as saturated, polyunsaturated, and monounsaturated fatty acids act as inflammatory mediators or influence pro-coagulation in Saudi adults. The study sought to examine inflammatory factors such as C-reactive protein, tumor necrosis factor-alpha and activated plasminogen activator inhibitor 1. A total number of 232 consenting Saudi adults, aged 18-60 years were randomly selected in this cross-sectional study. Independent Student t-test was done to compare means of normally distributed data. Spearman correlation between the variables was determined. The values of different fatty acids and adipokines were transformed logarithmically/square root to normalize data before correlations were determined and statistical analyses performed. Statistical significance was set at p<0.05. The results show a significant positive correlation of dietary intake of poly and monounsaturated fatty acids, but not saturated fatty acids, with activated plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 (r=0.31, p=0.02, r=0.32 p=0.04). On the other hand, dietary intake of saturated fatty acids showed a negative correlation with serum C-reactive protein levels (p=0.001) in males. Dietary unsaturated fatty acids is possibly associated with the production of a pro-coagulation factor without enhancing the secretion of pro-inflammatory molecules, while saturated fatty acids have no effect on activated plasminogen activator inhibitor 1, but their level is negatively associated with the inflammatory factor C-reactive protein. We conclude that dietary intake may exert a gender-specific effect in inflammatory processes among adults. Further studies are warranted to confirm present findings.