Distress, Fish Oil, Inflammation, and Heart Disease

描述（由申请人提供）：心理困扰，包括抑郁症和冠心病（CHD）仍然是发病率和死亡率的主要原因。此外，心理困扰本身似乎会增加冠心病的风险。然而，心理困扰和CHD相关的生物学机制仍然知之甚少。最近的证据表明，在心理困扰和冠心病中，鱼油（提供ω-3脂肪酸）的饮食消费不足。拟议的研究将利用结构方程模型来测试一个假设模型，该模型假定心理困扰和CHD有一个共同的因果因素-饮食omega-3脂肪酸缺乏症-其中慢性全身性炎症作为中介变量。受试者将是300名健康社区志愿者;已参与一项资助研究（HL 40962）。所要求的赠款将：a）通过主要研究者和Jeffrey Yao博士之间的新合作，支持磷脂脂肪酸组成、白细胞介素-6和C反应蛋白的额外测定，以及B）支持使用结构方程模型进行生物统计分析。这项研究的结果可能会改变目前心理因素与冠心病风险之间关系的概念，并导致随机临床试验测试新的干预措施。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Psychological distress, including depression, and coronary heart disease (CHD) remain major causes of morbidity and mortality. Furthermore, psychological distress, itself, appears to increase the risk of CHD. However, the biological mechanism(s) through which psychological distress and CHD are related remain poorly understood. Recent evidence implicates deficient dietary consumption of fish oil (supplying omega-3 fatty acids) in both psychological distress and CHD. The proposed research would utilize structural equation modeling to test a hypothesized model positing that psychological distress and CHD share a causal factor - dietary omega-3 fatty acid deficiency - in which chronic, systemic inflammation serves as the mediating variable. Subjects will be 300 healthy community volunteers; already participating in a funded investigation (HL40962). The requested grant would: a) support additional assays of phospholipid fatty acid composition, interleukin-6 and C-reactive protein made possible through a new collaboration between the principal investigator and Dr. Jeffrey Yao, and b) support biostatistical analysis using structural equation modeling. Results of the study could redirect current conceptualizations of the relationship between psychological factors and CHD risk, and lead to randomized clinical trials testing new interventions.