Cardiovascular effects of fish oils. Beyond the platelet.

T here has been considerable interest recently in the potential of fish oils to prevent coronary artery disease. The article by Braden et al, "Dietary Fish Oil Accelerates the Response of Cor- onary Thrombolysis With Tissue Plasminogen Acti- vator: Evidence for a Modest Platelet Inhibitory Effect In Vivo" in a recent issue of Circulation' is another in a series of rigorous studies on the effects of fish oils on experimental thrombosis performed by these Vanderbilt University investigators. They have nicely demonstrated that feeding high levels of the two important polyunsaturated fatty acids of fish oils, namely eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) (C20: 5w-3) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) (C22: 6c-3), sig- nificantly shortens the time for recombinant tissue- type plasminogen activator (rt-PA) to cause reperfu- sion in thrombosed coronary arteries in dogs. However, the high intake of fish oils failed to delay the development of an occluding thrombus when the endothelial surface of a cannulated coronary artery was injured electrically and failed to reduce the incidence of reocclusion as compared with control animals fed the usual dog chow.