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Unlabelled: Cornus wilsoniana Wanger is a woody oil plant distributed in the south region of the Yellow River, China. Its oil has been taken as edible oil for over 100 y, and consumption of such oil is believed to prevent hyperlipidemia in Chinese folk recipe. This study has investigated the hypolipidemic effect of Cornus wilsoniana oil (CWO) in Sprague-Dawley rats. The results demonstrated that CWO could significantly decrease total cholesterol (TC), total triacylglycerol (TG), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) in serum, liver weight, hepatic TC, and TG. After analyzing the chemical constituents of CWO, we found that the content of unsaturated fatty acids (UFA) was very high (69.12%). Specially, the n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), including linoleic acid, γ-linolenic acid, and 11,14-eicosadienoic acid, accounted very great proportion (38.86%). The high hypolipidemic activity of CWO might be attributed to the lipid-lowering functions of these polyunsaturated fatty acids. Molecular docking was further performed to study the binding model of fatty acids (FA) from CWO to a possible hypolipidemic target, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor δ (PPARδ). The results showed that linoleic acid and γ-linolenic acid could bind PPARδ very well., Practical Application: Cornus wilsoniana oil could be used as equilibrated dietary oil, not only having hypolipidemic function, but also helping to overcome essential fatty acids deficiency., (© 2012 Institute of Food Technologists®)

Aim: To compare the composition of fatty acids (FAs) in diet, and the expression of delta-6 desaturase (D6D) and delta-5 desaturase (D5D) genes in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) between Chinese and Europeans., Methods: Three-day dietary records from 20 subjects from Beijing, China (n = 10) and Kent, UK (n = 10) were analysed. Expression of PBMC D6D and D5D genes of the subjects was determined using RT-PCR., Results: The dietary intake of Chinese subjects contained less saturated fatty acids (SFAs) and monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs), but more essential fatty acids (EFAs) than that of Europeans. Levels of expression of PBMC D6D and D5D genes of Chinese subjects were significantly lower than those of Europeans. A significant positive correlation was found between dietary intake of total SFAs and total MUFAs and expression of PBMC D6D and D5D genes, but a significant negative correlation between dietary intake of linoleic acid (LA) and alpha-linolenic acid (LNA) and the expression of PBMC D6D and D5D genes., Conclusion: Intake of high SFAs and MUFAs appears to increase expression of PBMC D6D and D5D genes, whilst high EFAs intake appears to decrease expression of PBMC D6D and D5D genes. A follow-up study of the expression of D6D and D5D genes in Chinese who live in European countries with high SFA and MUFA diets would be of interest., (Copyright 2006 S. Karger AG, Basel.)