STUDIES ON ALLERGY REGULATING FUNCTION OF HIGHLY UNSATURATED FATTY ACIDS

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To clarify the anti-allergic effect of food components, allergy regulating activity of highly unsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and antioxidants was examined using cultured cells and experimental animals. In cellular level, we showed that PUFA enhanced IgE production but inhibited the production of other antibodies, and that their IgE production enhancing activity became stronger with the increase in the number of double bond and was inhibited in the presence of lipophilic antioxidants. On the other hand, we found that PUFA inhibited LTB_4 release from rat peritoneal exudate cells (PEC) and the activity became stronger with the increase in the number of double bond. Then, we examined in vivo effect of dietary fats and tea polyhenol (TP) and found that perrilla oil rich in alpha-linolenic acid decresaed the LTB_4 releasing activity of rats through decrease in the proportion of arachidonic acid in membrane phospholipids. On the contrary, TP decrese LTB4 releasing activity without decreasing the arachidonic acid content. In addition, we studied on dietary effect of eicosapentaenoic (EPA) and docosahexaenoic (DHA) acids which exerted strong allergy regulating activity in cellular level. When rats were fed fish oils rich in EPA or DHA at the 10% level, high EPA fish oil decreased LTB_4 releasing activity of rat PEC more efficiently than high DHA oil, while the increase in serum IgE level or enhancement of IgE production by lymphocytes was not induced. These results suggest that intake of n-3 PUFA and antioxidants decrease the type I allergic response and that clinical application of these active components is important thereafter.