Dietary ω-3 fatty acid deficiency can lead to hypertension in later life; however, hypertension is affected by numerous other dietary factors.

We examined the effect of altering the dietary protein level on blood pressure in animals deficient or sufficient in ω-3 fatty acids.

Female rats were placed on one of four experimental diets 1 week prior to mating. Diets were either deficient (10% safflower oil; DEF) or sufficient (7% safflower oil, 3% flaxseed oil; SUF) in ω-3 fatty acids and contained 20 or 30% casein (DEF20, SUF20, DEF30, SUF30).

Offspring were maintained on the maternal diet for the duration of the experiment. At 12, 18, 24, and 30 weeks, blood pressure was assessed by tail cuff plethysmography.

At both 12 and 18 weeks of age, no differences in blood pressure were observed based on diet, however, by 24 weeks hypertension was evident in DEF30 animals; there were no blood pressure differences between the other groups.

This hypertension in DEF30 group was increased at 30 weeks, with systolic, diastolic, and mean arterial pressure all elevated.

These results

• indicate that the hypertension previously attributed to ω-3 fatty acid deficiency
• is dependent on additional dietary factors,
• including protein content.

Furthermore, this study is the first to plot the establishment of ω-3 fatty acid deficiency hypertension over time.

American Journal of Hypertension 2010; doi:10.1038/ajh.2009.198

Denovan P. Begg^1,2, Andrew J. Sinclair¹, Lauren A. Stahl², Manohar L. Garg³, Mark Jois⁴ and Richard S. Weisinger²

• ¹School of Medicine, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia
• ²School of Psychological Science, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Australia
• ³School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, Australia
• ⁴Department of Agriculture, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Australia

Correspondence: Richard S. Weisinger r.weisinger@latrobe.edu.au)