Eicosapentaenoic acid provokes stronger in vitro antiadipogenic effect than docosahexaenoic acid in differentiated 3T3-L1 cells

The comparative studies of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) effects on the amount of lipid droplets (LD) and within adipocytes are limited. In this study, 3T3-L1 mouse embryo fibroblasts (ATCC® CL-173™) were expanded up to fifth passage. At the stage of growth arrest, the cells were treated with EPA and DHA separately and in combination at 100 μg/mL for 2 days. Oil Red O staining protocol, subsequent extraction with isopropanol and spectrophotometric determination of absorbed dye were used to establish the amount of intracellular lipid droplets depo-sition. While DHA administration had no significant effect on reduction of LD intracellular deposi-tion, the EPA treatment decreased optical density (OD) significantly (P<0.05). Furthermore, a syner-gic effect of combined application of both PUFAs was not observed. In conclusion, EPA provoked stronger antiadipogenic effect than DHA suggesting that EPA administration would be more effective in already existing obesity