Research

Hormonal

Dietary intake of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (specifically DHA and EPA from fish oil) preferentially inhibits Toll-like receptor (TLR2 and TLR4) signaling, thereby suppressing the expression of inflammatory markers like COX-2 and NF-kB activation in immune cells.

To reduce inflammatory signaling in your immune cells, prioritize high doses of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (found in fish oil, specifically DHA and EPA). This paper suggests that a high intake (around 15g of fish oil daily in the study context) is required to significantly suppress the inflammatory response triggered by immune challenges. Conversely, high intake of saturated fats (like lauric acid) may exacerbate this inflammatory signaling.

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Results with a murine monocytic cell line (RAW 264.7) stably transfected with COX-2 promoter reporter gene also demonstrated that LPS-induced COX-2 expression was preferentially inhibited by docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, C22:6n-3) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, C20:5n-3), the major n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) present in fish oil.
Joo Young Lee et al. · Journal of Lipid Research · 2003

Why this rating

Combines human clinical trials (double-blind, placebo-controlled) with robust in vitro mechanistic studies using cell lines.

Source

Differential modulation of Toll-like receptors by fatty acids: preferential inhibition by n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids

Joo Young Lee et al. · Journal of Lipid Research · 2003

DOI 10.1194/jlr.m200361-jlr200

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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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