(P29-003-24) SFA-Dependent Association Between PUFA and Metabolic Syndrome Risk Factors

Objectives: To examine how the relationship between PUFA and SFA may associate with metabolic risk factors: triglycerides, HDL-c, glucose, waist circumference, and blood pressure.

Methods: UK Biobank participants with NMR measured FA, relevant covariates, and risk factors collected at the baseline visit (N = 230,388) were analyzed cross-sectionally. Linear regression models were used to predict continuous levels of the five metabolic syndrome risk factors: triglycerides (TG), HDL-c, glucose, waist circumference (WC), and blood pressure (BP). Each risk factor was modeled including an interaction between PUFA and SFA (moderation) to quantify how the association of percent PUFA with the aforementioned MetSyn risk factors changes with percent SFA. Models were adjusted for demographic and medical history variables.

Results: Each of the five models found evidence (p < 0.0036) of an SFA-dependent association between PUFA and the MetSyn risk factor; specifically, we found participants with high SFA have the strongest association of PUFA for each outcome, except for glucose. TGs, WC, and BP were each lower among participants with higher PUFAs; however, there was an SFA-dependent difference in the PUFA association with TGs and WC at high PUFA and with BP at low PUFA. For example, the SFA×PUFA interaction is significantly (p < 0.0036) associated with systolic BP (SBP). All comparisons are significant (p < 0.0036) unless otherwise stated. At tertile 1 (t1, low) PUFA, participants with SFA-t2 and SFA-t3 have 1.3% and 3.0% higher SBP than participants with SFA-t1. The decrement in SBP due to PUFA is larger for participants with SFA-t3 (PUFA-t1vt3: -3.9%) compared to SFA-t1 (PUFA-t1vt3: -2.4%), but not different between SFA-t1 and SFA-t2 (p = 0.035). At PUFA-t3, the difference due to SFA level is minimized or removed (SFA-t1vt2: -0.8%; SFA-t1vt3: -1.1%; SFA-t2vt3: p = 0.69).

Conclusions: This analysis is the first to describe the SFA-dependent association of PUFA on MetSyn risk factors in the UK Biobank and demonstrates the differential benefit of PUFA on cardiometabolic outcomes.

Funding Sources: T32GM108563, NIH 1R01HL152215