A Randomized Trial of the Effects of Dietary n3-PUFAs on Skeletal Muscle Function and Acute Exercise Response in Healthy Older Adults
What this study found
6 months of EPA+DHA ~3.9 g/day increased knee-extension strength by 7.5% vs 3.1% with placebo (p=0.039). No significant effects on mitochondrial function (respiration, ATP production, ROS) or whole-body/muscle protein metabolism. Acute exercise–related whole-body amino acid kinetics showed attenuation of post-exercise protein synthesis increases; muscle fractional synthesis rate (FSR) increased after exercise in both groups, with an attenuated increase in tissue-fluid–FSR in the n3-PUFA group. RBC EPA/DHA increased in the active group, confirming adherence. Interpretation: modest…
- Study & population
- Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.
- Intervention
- EPA+DHA ~3.9 g/day (4 x 1000 mg softgels; each softgel ~675 mg EPA and ~300 mg DHA).
- Key limitation
- Healthy, nonfrail older adults; limited generalizability to frail or inflamed populations; sample size moderate; 6 months duration; potential learning effects in strength testing; small lean-mass changes may be underestimated by DXA; mitochondrial measures in permeabilized fibers may not reflect whole-organism…
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Open PDFOriginal abstract
Skeletal muscle is critical for maintaining mobility, independence, and metabolic health in older adults. However, a common feature of aging is the progressive loss of skeletal muscle mass and function, which is often accompanied by mitochondrial impairments, oxidative stress, and insulin resistance. Exercise improves muscle strength, mitochondrial health, and cardiorespiratory fitness, but older adults often exhibit attenuated anabolic responses to acute exercise. Chronic inflammation associated with aging may contribute to this “anabolic resistance” and therapeutic interventions that target inflammation may improve exercise responsiveness. To this end, we conducted a randomized controlled trial to determine the effect of 6 months of dietary omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n3-PUFA) supplementation on skeletal muscle function (mass, strength), mitochondrial physiology (respiration, ATP production, ROS generation), and acute exercise responsiveness at the level of the muscle (fractional synthesis rate) and the whole-body (amino acid kinetics) in healthy older adults. When compared with a corn oil placebo (n = 33; 71.5 ± 4.8 years), older adults treated with 4 g/day n3-PUFA (n = 30; 71.4 ± 4.5 years) exhibited modest but significant increases in muscle strength (3.1 ± 14.7% increase in placebo vs. 7.5 ± 14.1% increase in n3-PUFA; p = 0.039). These improvements in muscle strength with n3-PUFA supplementation occurred in the absence of any effects on mitochondrial function and a minor attenuation of the acute response to exercise compared to placebo. Together, these data suggest modest benefits of dietary n3-PUFAs to muscle function in healthy older adults. Future studies may elucidate whether n3-PUFA supplementation improves the exercise response in elderly individuals with co-morbidities, such as chronic inflammatory disease or sarcopenia.