Comparable reductions in hyperpnoea-induced bronchoconstriction and markers of airway inflammation after supplementation with 6·2 and 3·1 g/d of long-chain n-3 PUFA in adults with asthma

Study answer

What this study found

Both n-3 PUFA doses reduced hyperpnea-induced bronchoconstriction and airway inflammation, and the lower dose was similar to the higher dose. After 21 days, peak fall in FEV1 after EVH improved to -1000 (SD 460) ml, -29 (SD 17)% with 6.2 g/day and to -700 (SD 420) ml, -21 (SD 15)% with 3.1 g/day, versus placebo; both active treatments differed from placebo, with P < 0.001 and no meaningful difference between doses for key EVH outcomes. The AUC 0-30 for % fall in FEV1 was -415 (SD 382) for 6.2 g/day and -398 (SD 399) for 3.1 g/day versus -595 (SD 424) for placebo (P = 0.004 for treatment ×…

Study & population

Sixteen non-smoking, recreationally active adult men were studied: eight had physician-diagnosed asthma with hyperpnea-induced bronchoconstriction and eight were controls without asthma.

Intervention

Adults with asthma and hyperpnea-induced bronchoconstriction received oral long-chain n-3 PUFA for 21 days per treatment period in a randomized, block-randomized, placebo-controlled crossover design.

Key limitation

The active-arm sample size was small, with only 8 participants per dose arm, limiting precision and generalizability.

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Original abstract