Fish Oil Confirmed to Enhance Immune System, White Blood Cell Activity

DHA-rich fish oil was found to enhance B cell activity, a white blood cell, according to a study appearing in the April 2013 issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology. This stimulation of a crucial part of the immune system challenges the notion that fish oil achieves its anti-inflammatory effect, shown by much evidence, by being immunosuppressive. Hundreds of studies suggest that long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, particularly EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), may provide some benefits to a wide range of diseases: cancer, asthma, depression, cardiovascular disease, ADHD, and autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis.

"All these diseases have a common genesis in inflammation," says Joseph C. Maroon, MD, professor and vice chairman of the department of neurological surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Co-author of Fish Oil: The Natural Anti-Inflammatory, Maroon says that in large enough amounts omega-3's, which are plentiful in fish, shellfish and algae, reduce the inflammatory process that leads to many chronic conditions.

Fish oil rich in DHA and EPA is usually believed to prevent disease by reducing inflammation, but until now, scientists were not entirely sure about the immune enhancing effects behind this. The new discovery pointing at increased B cell activity is important as it shows that fish oil does not necessarily reduce the overall immune response to lower inflammation, possibly opening the doors for the use of fish oil among those with compromised immune systems.

"Fish oil may have immune enhancing properties that could benefit immunocompromised individuals," said Jenifer Fenton, Ph.D., M.P.H., a researcher involved in the work from the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan.

The experimental setup employed by the scientists to come to this conclusion involved two groups of mice, with the first being fed a control diet, while the other was fed a diet supplemented with DHA-rich fish oil for five weeks. B cells were harvested from several tissues and then stimulated in culture. Scientists then looked for B cell membrane changes, markers of B cell activation on the cell surface, and B cell cytokine production. The results showed that the second group had higher counts of this, therefore DHA-enriched fish oil enhanced B cell activation and select antibody production. This effect likely supports effective immune responses associated with pathogen clearance, while also dampening the totality of the inflammatory response as a result.

"This work confirms similar findings on fish oil and B cells from our lab, and moves us one step closer to understanding the immune enhancing properties of EPA and DHA," said S. Raza Shaikh, Ph.D., a researcher also involved in the work from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at East Carolina University.

Study:

Eric A. Gurzell, Heather Teague, Mitchel Harris, Jonathan Clinthorne, Saame Raza Shaikh, and Jenifer I. Fenton. DHA-enriched fish oil targets B cell lipid microdomains and enhances in vivo and ex vivo B cell function. J Leukoc Biol April 2013 93:463-470; doi:10.1189/jlb.0812394; https://www.jleukbio.org/content/93/4/463.abstract