2003 年 52 巻 8 号 p. 397-406
The effect of dietary fish oil containing eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid on blood viscosity was compared with that of corn oil. Male Sprague-Dawley rats at 4 weeks old were fed the experimental diets for 3 weeks, and the blood viscosity of the two groups was compared with a Micro Channel Array Flow Analyzer (MC-FAN). The viscosity of heparinized whole blood of the fish oil group was significantly lower than that of the corn oil group, although no significant difference was observed in the deformability of the red blood cells. Frequent platelet aggregations were observed only in the corn oil group in the images of a videocamera equipped with a MC-FAN. The arachidonic acid level in phospholipids of the plasma containing platelet was higher in the corn oil group than in the fish oil group. These findings suggest that the dietary fish oil improved the whole blood viscosity mainly by retarding the platelet aggregation ability, not by increasing the deformability of red blood cell membrane.
