Trans Fatty Acid Intake Modulates the Expression of Uncoupling Proteins 2 and 3 (UCP2 & UCP3) mRNA in Children.

Introduction

Trans fatty acids (TFA) are generally geometrical isomers of unsaturated fatty acids and have at minimum one non-conjugated carbon-carbon double bond in the form of trans-configuration¹. Dietary TFA could be of artificial or organic sources. The artificial TFA are generated by partial hydrogenation of unsaturated vegetable oils². The major sources of artificial TFA in food are margarines, deeply fried fast foods, commercially baked products and packaged snack foods³.

Consuming high amounts of TFAs (>1% of total daily energy intake) is associated with high risk of Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) ^4,5. That could be linked to increase low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL), decrease high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL), release of pro-inflammatory cytokines and endothelial dysfunction^3,6. Moreover, high TFA has been identified as a major risk factor for obesity^6,7. Lesions in the big arteries can begin to appear in childhood and are majorly linked to dyslipidemia⁸. The negative health effects of TFA were attributed mainly to TFA coming from artificial origin and some studies have suggested that natural TFA might have beneficial effects⁹.

Non-communicable disease (NCDs) is accused of about 68% of deaths in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR)¹⁰. Elevated numbers of children (6.9% of children under five years) higher than the global average of (6.2%) showed overweight. In most EMR countries, more than 50% of the adolescents are overweight or obese¹¹. In 2016 The total mortalities of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) in the EMR was around 1.3 million, representing 31.9% of total mortality rate¹².

Uncoupling proteins (UCPs) biochemically are proteins disperse the mitochondrial inter-membrane electrochemical potential as heat . UCPs are classified UCP-1,2 and 3. UCP-1 is overexpressed when exposing to cold and overeating, and its half-life ranges from hours to days¹³.

The second isoform, UCP-2, has shown to mediate cyto-protection, immune cell modulation and enhance glucose sensitivity in tissues as the brain and the pancreas, having a half-life of only 1h. Lastly, UCP-3 is markedly translated in skeletal tissue, with a half-life of 1 to 4h¹⁴. UCP3 could be of high thermo-genic importance under specific situations and it is an attractive drug target for the management of obesity. A major function of...