Investigating the relationship between stroke and serum fatty acids in hypertensive population

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Stroke is prevalent in hypertensive population. It has been suggested that monospecific unsaturated fatty acids (USFA) have potential effect on protection against stroke. However, the effect of saturated fatty acids (SFAs) on stroke is controversial. Therefore, we studied the relationship between recent stroke and serum levels of fatty acids including both USFAs and SFAs in hypertensive patients. METHODS: 89 pairs including 100 men and 78 women matched by sex and age were recruited. Each pair included a hypertensive patient experiencing a stroke within 48 hours before examination and a hypertensive patient without stroke. 6 categories of serum fatty acids were methylated before concentration determination which was repeated twice with percent recovery estimated. Data were analyzed using R version 3.0.1. RESULTS: There were differences in educational level (P¼0.002) and occupation (P<0.001) between stroke and non-stroke participants. Non-stroke participants had higher levels of total cholesterol (P<0.001), triglyceride (P¼0.041), LDL (P¼0.048) and HDL (P¼0.001). All the 6 fatty acid levels were higher in non-stroke participants (P¼0.017 for palmitoleic acid, 0.001 for palmitic acid, <0.001 for linoleic acid, <0.001 for behenic acid, <0.001 for nervonic acid and 0.002 for lignoceric acid). Before adjustment, recent stroke was inversely associated with fatty acid levels except lignoceric acid’s. After adjustment for education and occupation, the palmitoleic acid and palmitic acid levels were no longer inversely associated with recent stroke. After further adjustment for systolic blood pressure, smoking, drinking, total cholesterol and triglyceride, the inverse associations of linoleic acid (OR¼0.965, 95%CI¼0.942-0.990, P¼0.005), behenic acid (OR¼0.778, 95%CI¼0.664-0.939, P¼0.009), nervonic acid (OR¼0.323, 95%CI¼0.121-0.860, P¼0.024) with recent stroke were still highly significant. CONCLUSION: The levels of the fatty acids except lignoceric acid were inversely associated with recent stroke. Our results raise the possibility that both USFAs and SFAs may have beneficial effect on reduction of stroke risk in hypertensive population.