Modulation of immune response in thermal injury by essential fatty acid-deficient diet

This study was performed to determine the effects of essential fatty acid-deficient diet (EFAD) on immune parameters at 24 hours and 1 week after burn injury. Sprague Dawley rats were fed an EFAD diet or chow diet for 14 days. Twenty percent of the animals were put to death before the burn treatment (day 0), and the remainder were selected randomly to receive a scald or sham injury. Elevation in natural killer cell activity for EFAD-fed animals compared with rats fed the control diet was demonstrated at 100:1 effector:target (E:T) ratio on postburn day 1, and 25:1 E:T ratio on postburn day 7. EFAD-fed animals had significantly higher T-cell proliferation for all doses of phytohemagglutinin than did control animals before the burn injury. One week after the injury, EFAD-fed animals' T-cell activity was reduced to a level equivalent to that of control chow animals, whereas burned chow rats' lymphocyte activity was diminished significantly. EFAD diets enhanced T-cell proliferation and modestly improved natural killer cell response in both burned and control animals.