Evidence is accumulating that dietary supplementation with fish oil triglycerides is a potentially attractive prophylactic and therapeutic tool for coronary vascular disease, and, for immune and other disorders responsive to modulation of eicosanoid cascade and eicosanoid mediated cellular funcitons. The physiological effects of dietary fish oils have been traced to their omega- polyunsaturated fatty adic building blocks. However, rigorous proof is not available, notably because fish oils are exceedingly complex mixtures, feeding trials with highly purified omega-3 fatty acid derivatives have not been completed, the more readily accessible derivatives such as ethyl eicosapentaenoate are poorly digested and absorbed, and, indeed are not suitable for such trials. The long term goal of this project is to design and develop novel glycerolipid derivatives of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids which will be readily digestible, and the resulting omega-3 polyunsaturated products will be efficiently absorbable from the digestive tract. The compounds will be useful not only in the confirmatory feeding trials mentioned above, and in other research studies, but also as candidate prophylactic and therapeutic agents. The Phase I objective is to establish relationships between structure and composition of mixed acid glycerides of omega-3 and other types of fatty acids, and, the relative ease of digestibility to readily absorbable products. The study is designed to establish the feasibility of the long term objectives.
