The Wake Forest and Harvard Center for Botanical Lipids

在未来20年内，超过三分之一的美国公民将遭受炎症性疾病的困扰。 疾病如哮喘、关节炎、糖尿病、狼疮、克罗恩病、湿疹或心脏病。这些令人不安的趋势已经创造了一代患者，他们正在寻求新的方法来管理他们的衰弱疾病。因此，在发达国家，特别是在美国等西方国家，补充/替代医学的使用急剧增加。多不饱和脂肪酸（PUFA）已成为膳食补充剂市场中功能性添加剂的领导者。维克森林和哈佛植物脂质中心汇集了来自三个国际公认的脂质组的杰出研究人员，以研究目前作为膳食补充剂销售的植物脂肪酸混合物的细胞和分子作用机制和临床潜力，重点是预防和治疗动脉粥样硬化和哮喘。每个项目都将研究在哺乳动物饮食中添加来自相同代谢途径的选定植物多不饱和脂肪酸对健康的影响。前两个项目将使用动脉粥样硬化的小鼠模型来研究亚麻籽油和蓝蓟油改善这种疾病过程的机制。项目3在人类受试者中检查了琉璃苣和蓝蓟油中发现的植物多不饱和脂肪酸的抑制作用，重点是白三烯的产生;白三烯在哮喘中具有已证实的作用，并且有新的数据表明它们在动脉粥样硬化中的作用。项目4的重点是琉璃苣/蓝蓟油组合，以及这些补充剂是否可以用于 治疗人类哮喘。这些相互作用和协同作用的研究具有很强的科学基础，并可能提供有关用植物油治疗动脉粥样硬化和哮喘等慢性炎症性疾病的新认识。

Within the next two decades, more than one in three US citizens will suffer from an inflammatory disease such as asthma, arthritis, diabetes, lupus, Crohn's disease, eczema or heart disease. These disturbing trends have created a generation of sufferers who are seeking new ways to manage their debilitating diseases. Consequently, the use of complementary/alternative medicine has dramatically increased in the developed world and especially in Western countries such as the United States. Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) have emerged as a leading group of functional additives in the dietary supplement marketplace. The Wake Forest and Harvard Center for Botanical Lipids brings together a group of outstanding investigators from three internationally-recognized lipid groups to examine the cellular and molecular mechanisms of action and clinical potential of botanical fatty acid mixtures currently sold as dietary supplements with a focus on the prevention and treatment of atherosclerosis and asthma. Each project will examine health effects of adding selected botanical PUFAs from the same metabolic pathway to mammalian diets. The first two projects will use a mouse model of atherosclerosis to examine mechanisms by which this disease process is ameliorated with flaxseed oil and echium oil. Project 3 examines in human subjects the antiinflammatory actions of botanical PUFAs found in borage and echium oils, with a focus on the generation of leukotrienes; leukotrienes have a proven role in asthma and there is emerging data for their role in atherosclerosis. Project 4 focuses on borage/echium oil combinations and whether these supplements can be used to treat asthma in humans. These interactive and synergistic studies have a strong scientific basis and are likely to provide new understanding regarding the treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases such as atherosclerosis and asthma with botanical oils.