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Plasma phospholipid fatty acid profiles and their association with food intakes: results from a cross-sectional study within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition^1,2,3

¹ From the International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France (MS-E, NS, VC, MJ, CB, PF, GB, and PA); the Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France (VC); the Université Lyon1, INSERM U870, Lyon, France (JG); the Julius Center for Health and Primary Care, University of Utrecht, Netherlands (PHMP); the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom (PHMP and ER); the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, Netherlands (MO and BBdM); the Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Nutrition Research, Umeå, Sweden (IJ and GH); the Department of Surgery, Malmö University Hospital, Malmö, Sweden (JM); the Department of Clinical Sciences, Nutrition Epidemiology, Lund University, Malmö, Sweden (EW); the Unit of Nutrition, Environment and Cancer, Catalan Institute of Oncology, Barcelona, Spain (CAG); the Epidemiology Department, Murcia Health Authority and CIBER Epidemiologia y Salud Pùblica, San Sebastian, Spain (CN); the Andalusian School of Public Health and CIBER Epidemiologia y Salud Pùblica, Granada, Spain (CM); the Public Health Division of Gipuzkoa, Department of Health of the Basque Government, San Sebastian, Spain (PA); the Jefa de Sección de Información Sanitaria, Servicio de Salud Poblacional, Dirección General de Salud Pública, Consejeria de Salud y Servicios Sanitarios, Principado de Asturias, Spain (LRS); the Public Health Institute of Navarra and CIBER en Epidemiologia y Salud Pùblica, Pamplona, Spain (EA); The Danish Cancer Society, Institute of Cancer Epidemiology, Copenhagen, Denmark (AT and JH); the Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Aahrus University Hospital, Aalborg, Denmark (KO and MUJ); the Nutritional Epidemiology Unit, National Cancer Institute, Milan, Italy (FB and VP); the Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica e Sperimentale, Federico II University, Naples, Italy (MSdM); the Molecular and Nutritional Epidemiology Unit, CSPO Scientific Institute of Tuscany, Florence, Italy (DP); the Registro Tumori Ragusa, Ragusa, Italy (RT); the Servizio di Epidemiologia dei Tumori, Università di Torino and CPO-Piemonte, Turin, Italy (PV); the Cancer Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom (EAS and FLC); the MRC Dunn Human Nutrition Unit and Centre for Nutritional Epidemiology in Cancer Prevention and Survival, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (SB and K-TK); the German Cancer Research Centre, Heildelberg, Germany (JL and SR); the Department of Epidemiology, Postdam, Germany (HB and UN); the Institute of Community Medicine, University of Tromsø, Tromsø, Norway (KSO, GS, and EL); the Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, University of Athens, Athens, Greece (AT and EO); and INSERM ERI-20, Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France (FC-C).

² The work described herein was supported by the "Europe Against Cancer" Programme of the European Commission and other internal resources of the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

³ Reprints not available. Address correspondence to N Slimani, International Agency for Research on Cancer, 150 Cours Albert Thomas, 69372 Lyon Cedex 08, France. E-mail: slimani{at}iarc.fr.

Background: Plasma phospholipid fatty acids have been correlated with food intakes in populations with homogeneous dietary patterns. However, few data are available on populations with heterogeneous dietary patterns.

Objective: The objective was to investigate whether plasma phospholipid fatty acids are suitable biomarkers of dietary intakes across populations involved in a large European multicenter study.

Design: A cross-sectional study design nested to the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) was conducted to determine plasma fatty acid profiles in >3000 subjects from 16 centers, who had also completed 24-h dietary recalls and dietary questionnaires. Plasma fatty acids were assessed by capillary gas chromatography. Ecological and individual correlations were calculated between fatty acids and select food groups.

Results: The most important determinant of plasma fatty acids was region, which suggests that the variations across regions are largely due to different food intakes. Strong ecological correlations were observed between fish intake and long-chain n–3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (r = 0.78, P < 0.01), olive oil and oleic acid (r = 0.73, P < 0.01), and margarine and elaidic acid (r = 0.76, P < 0.01). Individual correlations varied across the regions, particularly between olive oil and oleic acid and between alcohol and the saturation index, as an indicator of stearoyl CoA desaturase activity.

Conclusions: These findings indicate that specific plasma phospholipid fatty acids are suitable biomarkers of some food intakes in the EPIC Study. Moreover, these findings suggest complex interactions between alcohol intake and fatty acid metabolism, which warrants further attention in epidemiologic studies relating dietary fatty acids to alcohol-related cancers and other chronic diseases.