• Luc Tappy, Mette Monica Berger, Jean-Marc Schwarz, Philippe Schneiter, Seungki Kim, Jean-Pierre Revelly, and René Chioléro.
• Department of Physiology, University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Luc.Tappy@unil.ch
• Clin Nutr. 2006 Aug 1;25(4):588-95.

Background & Aimsn-3 fatty acids are expected to downregulate the inflammatory responses, and hence may decrease insulin resistance. On the other hand, n-3 fatty acid supplementation has been reported to increase glycemia in type 2 diabetes. We therefore assessed the effect of n-3 fatty acids delivered with parenteral nutrition on glucose metabolism in surgical intensive care patients.MethodsTwenty-four surgical intensive care patients were randomized to receive parenteral nutrition providing 1.25 times their fasting energy expenditure, with 0.25 g of either an n-3 fatty acid enriched-or a soy bean-lipid emulsion. Energy metabolism, glucose production, gluconeogenesis and hepatic de novo lipogenesis were evaluated after 4 days.ResultsTotal energy expenditure was significantly lower in patients receiving n-3 fatty acids (0.015+/-0.001 vs. 0.019+/-0.001 kcal/kg/min with soy bean lipids (P<0.05)). Glucose oxidation, lipid oxidation, glucose production, gluconeogenesis, hepatic de novo lipogenesis, plasma glucose, insulin and glucagon concentrations did not differ (all P>0.05) in the 2 groups.Conclusionsn-3 fatty acids were well tolerated in this group of severely ill patients. They decreased total energy expenditure without adverse metabolic effects.

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