Cytotoxicity of combined essential fatty acids on a human prostate cancer cell line

In this study the effect of single and concomitantly added n-6 or n-3 polyu nsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) was investigated on human prostate cells. Da ta obtained from the single fatty acids (FAs) experiments showed that excep t for oleic acid (OA), arachidonic (AA) and linoleic acid (LA), which had v ery little (less than 10% cells dead) effect on the cells, an increase in d ead cells was observed at physiological concentrations of, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), gamma-linolenic acid (GLA) and alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). How ever, this was not the case when combining these acids at physiological con centrations. A slight increase in cell death was only obtained with three c ombinations of ALA, namely with AA, OA, or GLA. Other combinations with ALA , such as with LA or EPA, had respectively no effect on cell number or incr eased the cell number by causing less cells to die. Other PUFAs combination s tested, did not show the three groups mentioned with ALA, but only the la st two types, namely, no effect, or a decrease in the amount of cell death. The latter might mean that the FA combination had stimulated the cells, si nce a decrease in the amount of dead cells was observed. Therefore, it is c oncluded that the characteristics of combined FAs may differ from single FA s, which may explain some controversies in the literature and in response t o treatments. (C) 1999 Harcourt Publishers Ltd.