Effects of linoleic acid, α-linolenic acid and soybean oil administration on the autoimmune factors of MRL/lpr strain mice. Male mice of 5 weeks of age were divided into three groups; Group 1(Soybean oil group), Group 2(Linoleic acid group), Group 3 (α-linolenic acid group). Mice were individually housed in steel cages and the diets and water were fed ad libitum. Weight of alae lymph node of mice fed α-linolenic acid diet was significantly lower than that of mice fed linoleic acid diet. Protein urea concentration of the mice fed α-linolenic acid diet was lower than that of the linoleic acid diet group. Serum anti-dsDNA antibody titre , IL-18 and TNF-α of mice were decreased by administering α-linolenic acid. Mice fed α-linolenic acid showed highest survival rate. Soybean oil diet gave the intermediate value between α-linolenic acid and linoleic acid. These results well agreed with the previous reports of cooking oils such as perilla oil, fish oil etc.
