Plasma n-6 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Levels and Survival in Renal Transplantation

The major n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids linoleic acid (LA) and arachidonic acid (AA) play a role in inflammation and glucose metabolism, which could affect patient and renal transplant survival.

In this single center cohort study of 1988 Norwegian renal transplant recipients, we assessed associations between plasma levels of LA and AA at baseline, measured by gas chromatography, and patient and graft survival, as well as inflammation and cardiovascular risk markers.

During follow-up (median of 9.6 years), 595 patients died and 805 renal transplants were lost, either due to recipient death or graft failure. In multivariable survival analysis, we found no associations with mortality for plasma levels of LA (hazard ratios: 0.99, 95% confidence intervals: 0.96-1.01) or AA (hazard ratios: 1.01, 95% confidence intervals: 0.96-1.06). No associations were found for cardiovascular mortality, overall graft loss, or death-censored graft loss. Plasma glucose, proglycemic marker chemerin, and proinflammatory marker growth differentiation factor 15 were inversely associated with plasma LA and positively associated with plasma AA levels in multivariable analysis.

We found no associations between plasma levels of LA or AA and patient or graft survival. Plasma levels of LA and proglycemic indices were inversely associated, signaling a possible beneficial effect of LA consumption for prevention of posttransplantation diabetes mellitus.