Long-Chain Fatty Acids Allegedly Linked to Autoimmune Disease Severity

An animal study has reportedly suggested that dietary long-chain
fatty acids (LCFAs) can increase the severity of chronic inflammatory
diseases such as multiple sclerosis. Aiden Haghikia, et al., “Dietary Fatty
Acids Directly Impact Central Nervous System Autoimmunity via the
Small Intestine,” Immunity, October 2015. Using murine cell cultures
and experimental models, researchers evidently showed that LCFAs
“enhanced the differentiation and proliferation” of central nervous
system reactive immune cells in the intestinal wall, while short-chain
fatty acids (SCFAs) promoted the development of regulatory cells that
control excessive inflammation.

“These data demonstrate a direct dietary impact on intestinal-specific,
and subsequently central nervous system-specific, Th cell responses
in autoimmunity, and thus might have therapeutic implications for
autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis,” states the study,
which remarks that these effects did not appear in germ-free intestinal
environments and raises questions about the role of the microbiome
in mediating autoimmune responses. The researchers apparently plan
to use their findings to “develop innovative dietary add-on therapies to
established immunotherapies in multiple sclerosis.”

Issue 582