Effects of replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat on whole genome gene expression profiles in peripheral blood mononuclear cells - a randomized controlled dietary intervention study

To further understand the molecular mechanisms underlying the health effects of replacing saturated fat (SFA) with polyunsaturated fat (PUFA), we aimed to explore the whole transcriptome response of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) in a dietary intervention where SFAs were replaced with PUFAs. Moderately hypercholesterolaemic subjects (n = 115) were randomly assigned to a control diet group (c-diet group) or an experimental diet group (ex-diet group) receiving commercially available and regularly consumed food items with different fatty acid composition (replacing SFAs with mostly n-6 PUFAs) for eight weeks. Microarray analyses of RNA isolated from PBMCs at baseline and after eight weeks of intervention were performed using illuminaHT-12 v4 Expression BeadChips. A total of 92 subjects (ex-diet group; n=43, c-diet group; n=49) were included in the statistical analyses of this study. Group A = Ex-diet group Group B = C-diet group