In the recent MON R&D Pipeline Update Call (Jan 6, 2010), Steve Padgett, Monsanto's VP Biotechnology stated:
Two clinical studies conducted by Monsanto, and a third by Dr. William Harris which he presented to the American Heart Association in November, clearly show a measurable increase in omega-3 fatty acid upon consumption of SDA soybean oil.
When I review William S Harris' publications on PubMed, I note several related to beneficial effects of Omega-3 on various biological parameters. In some of these publications, Dr. Harris has been working in collaboration with Monsanto's Product Safety Center.
The American Heart Association has recommended that all adults strive to consume at least two servings of fish (preferably oily) per week to reduce the risk for CHD [8] . Western diets are typically low in EPA and DHA because the primary source of these FAs is oily fish (such as salmon, mackerel, albacore tuna, and sardines), and consumption of these is minimal [9]. If such advice were actually heeded, there is serious doubt that the world’s oceans could support such a shift in dietary consumption patterns [10]. Accordingly, a new and sustainable source of long-chain omega-3 FAs is needed. Currently, land-based sources of omega-3 FAs include flaxseed, canola, and soybean oils, which contain alpha-linolenic acid (C18:3n-3, ALA). ALA can be converted in vivo via desaturation and elongation pathways to EPA [11]. However, this conversion has a very low efficiency, converting somewhere between 0.01 and 8% of ALA to EPA and less to DHA [11, 12]. The rate-limiting step in the conversion of ALA to EPA is the delta-6 desaturase, and the product of this reaction is stearidonic acid (C18:4n-3, SDA). SDA is more readily converted to EPA than is ALA [13]. Hence, another strategy for raising tissue EPA levels with a plant-based omega-3 FA is to consume foods containing SDA. SDA is found in low concentrations (up to 4% w/w of total fatty acids) in fish oils (which also provide EPA and DHA), but also in some plant oils that are consumed as dietary supplements (e.g., echium). Recently, soybean plants have been genetically modified to produce oil containing a substantial amount of SDA (15–30% w/w of total fatty acids) [14]. This study was designed to test the hypothesis that increased SDA intake would favorably impact the omega-3 index.
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The western diet contains very little SDA, but there are natural sources, notably fish oils, which contain up to 4% SDA (w/w of total fatty acids) [14]. Oil derived from Echium plantagineum, a plant that grows wild in Australia, contains about 8–12% SDA [27]. Echium oil raised the EPA content of peripheral blood mononuclear cell phospholipids [28, 29], and, when fed at 15 g/day for 4 weeks, significantly increased EPA and DPA, but not DHA, in plasma and neutrophils in 11 hypertriglyceridemic humans [30]. In the same trial, echium was reported to lower serum triglyceride concentrations by 21%, but these findings need to be confirmed in randomized, blinded and placebo-controlled trials. Compared to canola or soybean oil, which are in large-scale commercial production and approved for human consumption, echium oil is very limited in abundance, and its use is currently limited to dietary supplements in the USA. Other minor sources of SDA are also limited in availability (e.g., evening primrose, borage and black currant seed oils). The genetically enhanced SBO used in this study contained about 17% SDA [14], but other cultivars can approach 30% and hence could provide a substantial amount of omega-3 fatty acids in the human diet.
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