Influence of highly purified eicosapentaenoic acid ethyl ester on insulin resistance in the Otsuka Long-Evans Tokushima fatty rat, a model of spontaneous non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus

We investigated the effect of long-term administration of highly purified eicosapentaenoic acid ethyl ester (EPA-E), an n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid derived from fish oil, in comparison to the effects of lard, olive oil, safflower oil, or distilled water as the control on the development of insulin resistance in Otsuka Long-Evans Tokushima Fatty (OLETF) rats, a model of spontaneous non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) with obesity. After 17 or 18 weeks of treatment, the glucose infusion rate (GIR) in the euglycemic insulin-glucose clamp test only showed a significant increase in EPA-E-treated rats compared with control rats given distilled water alone as the vehicle. The GIR in EPA-E-treated animals was approximately three times greater than in the controls. This is the first report to display the influence of various fatty acids on the development of insulin resistance in OLETF rats. We demonstrated that EPA-E prevents the onset of insulin resistance, whereas olive oil and safflower oil have no effect and lard exacerbates insulin resistance. Fatty acid analysis of phospholipids in skeletal muscle showed a significant increase of the C18:2, C20:5, and C22:5 components in EPA-E-treated rats and, conversely, a significant decrease in C20:4. In addition, EPA-E-treated rats showed a significant increase in GLUT4 mRNA in skeletal muscle when compared with control rats. Our results indicate that the beneficial effect of EPA-E on insulin resistance in OLETF rats is likely to be dependent on modification of the phospholipid components of the skeletal muscle membrane. These findings suggest that dietary fatty acids may play a key role in the development of insulin resistance in patients with NIDDM. Copyright (C) 1997 by W.B. Saunders Company.