ScopeThe study aims at identifying 1) the most sensitive compartment among plasma phospholipids, erythrocytes, and LDL for studying alpha‐linolenic acid (ALA) conversion, and 2) whether ALA incorporation and conversion is saturable after administration of 13C‐labeled ALA‐rich linseed oil (LO). The effect of a daily intake of 7 g nonlabeled LO (>43% w/w ALA) for 1 month after bolus administration of 7 g 13C‐labeled LO on day 1, and for 2 months after bolus administration of 7 g 13C‐labeled LO on day 1 and day 29 on 13C‐ALA incorporation and conversion into its higher homologs is investigated in healthy volunteers.Methods and resultsIncorporation and conversion of LO‐derived 13C‐labeled ALA is quantified by applying compartmental modeling. After bolus administration, a fractional conversion of approximately 30% from 13C‐ALA to 13C‐DHA is calculated as reflected by the LDL compartment. Treatment with LO for 8 weeks induces a mean reduction of 13C‐ALA conversion to 13C‐DHA by 48% as reflected by the LDL compartment, and a mean reduction of the 13C‐ALA incorporation into LDL by 46%.ConclusionA 2‐month dietary intake of a high dose of LO is sufficient to reach saturation of ALA incorporation into LDL particles, which are responsible for ALA distribution in the body.

We aimed to investigate the effects of increased intake of α-linolenic acid (ALA), EPA, or DHA incorporated into a food matrix on the fatty acid composition of erythrocytes and on biomarkers of oxidant/antioxidant status. To this end, a controlled dietary study was conducted in 74 healthy men and women. The participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 interventions in which margarines fortified with either 10 weight percent ALA, EPA, or DHA ethyl esters replaced their normal spread for 6 wk. The total intakes of ALA, EPA, and DHA were 4.4, 2.2, and 2.3 g/d, respectively. Consuming EPA increased the erythrocyte proportion of EPA (394%) and the omega-3 index (sum of EPA and DHA, 38%). Consumption of DHA increased erythrocyte DHA (91%), the omega-3 index (98%), and EPA (137%). The omega-3 index increased to a significantly greater extent in the DHA group than in the EPA group. ALA did not increase erythrocyte EPA or the omega-3 index. We found no change in plasma uric acid or antioxidant capacity in any of the groups. Plasma malondialdehyde (MDA) increased with the EPA and DHA interventions. All 3 interventions decreased erythrocyte linoleic acid hydroperoxides but did not affect their MDA concentrations. In conclusion, the intake of both isolated EPA and DHA incorporated into margarine resulted in an enhanced incorporation of EPA and DHA into erythrocytes. Our findings indicate that DHA is quantitatively superior to EPA in view of the EPA+DHA tissue incorporation and also that 4 g/d ALA is not sufficient to increase the omega-3 index over a 6-wk period.

Quantitative results for the mycotoxin ochratoxin A (OTA), obtained by a stable isotope dilution assay (SIDA) were compared with two commonly used analytical methods for OTA quantitation. For this, different types of food, such as wheat, coffee, sultanas, and blood sausages, were analyzed. Because results obtained by the SIDA method were closest to the certified contents of an OTA reference material, data obtained by this method were considered as reference data. For liquid chromatography-fluorescence detection, a clean-up by solid phase extraction on silica was found to be necessary, and a correction for recovery had to be performed to match the data from the SIDA experiments. The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) strongly overestimated the OTA content in coffee and nutmeg therefore an extract clean-up by immunoaffinity chromatography had to be used to match the SIDA results. Following this sample preparation, ELISA gave correct qualitative and semiquantitative results, and proved to be a suitable screening method. SIDA was also established as a valuable tool to quantify OTA in meat products, when using a clean-up procedure developed recently for blood samples.

The aim of this study was to develop a combined method for measuring the total antioxidant activity, the reductive and the radical scavenging activity. Linoleic acid was used as the substrate for an iron-initiated lipid peroxidation to measure the total antioxidant activity. In addition, methyl esters of linoleic acid hydroperoxides were used as substrates to measure the reductive antioxidant activity. The radical scavenging antioxidant activity was calculated by subtracting the reductive antioxidative activity from the total antioxidative activity. As representative examples, the antioxidants alpha-tocopherol, ascorbic acid, trans-resveratrol and L-glutathione as well as commonly used food additives such as 2(3)-tert-butyl-4-hydroxyanisole (BHA) and 2,6-bis(1,1-dimethylethyl)-4-methylphenol (BHT) were analyzed. The results for the novel antioxidation test showed that alpha-tocopherol, BHA and BHT are primarily acting as radical scavengers, whereas ascorbic acid and L-glutathione show a strong reductive capacity. As linoleic acid as well as its hydroperoxides both are present in foods and in the organism, the test presented here can be considered representative of radical reactions occurring in food matrixes and in vivo. Further experiments are required to document the comprehensive applicability in foods and in vivo.

A comparison study on folate quantitation was carried out between the recently developed stable isotope dilution assay using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS-MS) and the frequently used HPLC with fluorimetric detection (LC-FD). By applying LC-MS-MS, spinach, wheat bread, beef, and blood plasma were found to contain 159.2, 19.8, 1.2, and 5.6 microg/100 g total folates, respectively, whereas the respective quantitative data obtained by LC-FD were 95.5, 16.2, 0.7, and 6.8 microg/100 g. In all samples, LC-MS-MS revealed superior selectivity and precision and circumvented the shortcomings of conventional LC techniques, i.e., ambiguous peak assignment as well as high detection limits for 5-formyltetrahydrofolate, 10-formylfolic acid, and folic acid. The affinity chromatography columns used in this study showed excellent cleanup performance and permitted detection limits as low as 0.1, 0.5, 0.1, 0.08, and 0.1 microg/100 g for tetrahydrofolate (H(4)folate), 5-methyl-H(4)folate, 5-formyl-H(4)folate, 10-formylfolate, and pteroylglutamic acid, respectively. Thus, a 10-fold higher sensitivity compared to solid-phase anion-exchange cartridges was achieved. However, affinity chromatography columns revealed a significantly higher affinity toward the natural vitamers than to the racemic isotopomeric standards, which has to be considered when applying the latter in stable isotope dilution assays.