Effet des acides gras sur l’inflammation et le cancer

¹ Inserm UMR-S 747 ; Université Paris Descartes, Centre Universitaire, 45 rue des Saints-Pères, 75006 Paris 01 42 86 38 68
² Department of Physiology, School of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto, Avenida Bandeirantes 3900, 14.049 Ribeirão Preto, S.P. Brésil

^* claude.forest@univ-paris5.fr

Abstract

A substantial body of evidence supports the conclusion that chronic inflammation is a causative factor in a variety of cancers. Inflammatory mediators include metabolites of arachidonic acid, cytokines, chemokines, and free radicals. These mediators increase cell proliferation, mutagenesis, oncogene activation, with ultimately the loss of cell growth control. Among the nutritional factors that can influence inflammation and cancerogenesis, fatty acids are clearly the most directly involved. Indeed, omega-3 and omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids exert opposite effects on inflammation and potentially on tumor formation. The present review analyses in a non-exhaustive manner some of the mechanisms that have been proposed to explain how omega-6 can be detrimental while omega-3 have beneficial effects.