Docosahexaenoic acid regulates vascular endothelial cell function and prevents cardiovascular disease

Table 2 Evidence for cardiovascular effects of EPA, DHA and DPA in human sutdies

	EPA	DHA	DPA
Physiologic risk factors
Lipids	↓ TG levels	↓ TG levels	—
	↓ HDL₃ cholesterol²	↑ LDL particle size
		↑ HDL₂ cholesterol
Vascular and cardiac hemodynamics	Minimal BP effects	↓ BP	—
	? Heart rate effects	↓ Heart rate
	↑ Cardiac diastolic filling²	↑ Cardiac diastolic filling²
	↑ Arterial compliance²	↑ Arterial compliance²
Endothelial function	No clear effects²	No clear effects²	—
Inflammation and oxidative	↓ Inflammation, mixed	↓ Inflammation, mixed	↓ Inflammation, mixed
stress	results²	results²	results^2,3
	↓ Oxidative stress, mixed results²	↓ Oxidative stress, mixed results²
Thrombosis and coagulation	↓ Collagen-stimulated platelet aggregation²	↓ Collagen-stimulated platelet aggregation²	↓ Collagen-stimulated platelet aggregation²
	Otherwise minimal effects on thrombosis or coagulation	Otherwise minimal effects on thrombosis or coagulation

1. BP blood pressure, CHD Coronary heart disease, DPA docosapentaenoic, − minimal data available for direct assessment.
2. Base on a single study or few studies. 3. Observation studies only.
Abbreviations: DHA docosahexaenoic acid, EPA eicosapentaenoic acid, DPA docosapentaenoic acid, TG Triglycerid, BP blood pressure, HDL high-density lipoprotein, LDL low-density lipoprotein, NO nitric oxide.
Adapted from reference [43] Mozaffarian and Wu, 2012

ISSN: 1476-511X