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It has been widely documented that fish oil attenuates inflammatory responses partially via down-regulation of T-lymphocyte function. To determine the anti-inflammatory role of fish oil in weanling pigs, we investigated the effects of fish oil and its functional constituents on peripheral blood lymphocyte proliferation, cytokine production and subsequent intracellular signalling in inflammatory-challenged weanling pig and in in vitro cultured lymphocytes. Fish oil (7%) or corn oil (7%) was supplemented to 72 crossbred pig (7.6 +/- 0.3 kg BW and 28 +/- 3 days of age) in a 2 x 2 factorial experiment that included an Eacherichia coil lipopolysaccharide (LPS) challenge (challenged or not challenged). On day 14 and 28 of the experiment, 200 microg/kg BW of LPS or an equivalent amount of sterile saline was administered to the pigs by intraperitoneal injection. Blood samples were collected on days 15 and 29 to determine peripheral blood lymphocyte proliferation, interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta) and interleukin-2 (IL-2) production. The results showed that inflammatory challenge decreased average daily gain (P 0.05). These results suggest that fish oil and its functional constituents (EPA and DHA) exerted an anti-inflammatory effect by down-regulation of lymphocyte activation in weanling pigs, possibly by manipulation of intracellular signalling.
Liu et al. (Sun,) studied this question.