Identification of Cyclopropane Fatty Acids in Human Plasma after Controlled Dietary Intake of Specific Foods.

Cyclopropane fatty acids (CPFAs) are an investigated class of secondary fatty acids of microbial origin recently identified in foods. Even though the dietary daily intake of this class of compounds it has been recently estimated as not negligible, to date, no studies specifically have investigated their presence in human plasma after consumption of CPFA-rich sources. Therefore, the aims of this study were (i) to test CPFAs concentration in human plasma, thus demonstrating their in vivo bioaccessibility and potential bioavailability, (ii) to investigate a dose-response relationship between medium term chronic intake of CPFAs-rich foods and both CPFAs and plasma total fatty acid profiles in healthy subjects. Ten healthy normal weight adults were enrolled for conducting an in vivo study. Participants were asked to follow a CPFA-controlled diet for 3 weeks, consuming 50 g of Grana Padano cheese (GP) and 250 mL of whole cow milk, which correspond to a total of 22.1 mg of CPFAs. Fasting CPFAs concentration were monitored for eight timepoints during the whole study and plasma total fatty acids composition was determined by GC-MS. CPFAs, mainly dihydrosterculic acid (DHSA), were identified in plasma total fatty acids profile at the beginning of the study and after dietary treatment. A significant (