ArticleProstaglandins, leukotrienes, and essential fatty acids2022
Circulating polyunsaturated fatty acids, pressure pain thresholds, and nociplastic pain conditions.
Article in Prostaglandins, leukotrienes, and essential fatty acids, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- Changes in plasma fatty acid composition in females with lipedema following low-carbohydrate vs low-fat diets and associations with pain reduction.Nutrition journal · 2026Trial
- Multimorbidity in Chronic Overlapping Pain Conditions: From Burden to Integrated Care.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Review
- Plasma fatty acids reflect pain, disability, and psychological well-being in knee osteoarthritis in a longitudinal study with joint replacement surgery.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Long-chain PUFA and painful temporomandibular disorder in the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos.Public health nutrition · 2025Article
- Chronic Overlapping Pain Conditions and Nociplastic Pain.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2024Article
- Editorial: Diet, nutrition, and functional foods for chronic pain.Frontiers in nutrition · 2024Article
- What Do We Know about Nociplastic Pain?Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Microbiological and Physiological Effects of Pain.Current pain and headache reports · 2023Review
- Circulating Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and Pain Intensity in Five Chronic Pain Conditions.The journal of pain · 2023Article
- Dataset linking free polyunsaturated fatty acid concentrations in erythrocytes with chronic pain conditions in adults.Data in brief · 2023Article
- Causal association of polyunsaturated fatty acids with chronic pain: a two-sample Mendelian randomization study.Frontiers in nutrition · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectivePolyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) play a role in pain regulation. This study sought to determine whether free PUFAs found in red blood cells also play a role in nociceptive processing. We examined associations between circulating PUFAs and nociceptive thresholds to noxious mechanical stimuli. We also determined whether nociceptive thresholds were associated with nociplastic pain conditions.
methodsThis cross-sectional study used stored red bloods cells and data from 605 adult participants in the OPPERA-2 study of chronic overlapping pain conditions. In OPPERA-2 adults completed quantitative sensory testing in which pressure algometry measured deep muscular tissue sensitivity at six anatomical sites. Standardized protocols classified adults for presence or absence of five nociplastic pain conditions: temporomandibular disorder, headache, low back pain, irritable bowel syndrome and fibromyalgia. Liquid chromatography tandem mass spectroscopy quantified erythrocyte PUFAs. We conducted three sets of analyses. First, a multivariable linear regression model assessed the association between n-6/n-3 PUFA ratio and the number of overlapping nociplastic pain conditions. Second, a series of 36 multivariable linear regression models assessed covariate-adjusted associations between PUFAs and nociceptive thresholds at each of six anatomical sites. Third, a series of 30 multivariable linear regression models assessed covariate-adjusted associations between nociceptive thresholds at six anatomical sites and each of five pain conditions.
resultsIn multiple linear regression, each unit increase in n-6/n-3 PUFA ratio was associated with more pain conditions (β = 0.30, 95% confidence limits: 0.07, 0.53, p = 0.012). Omega-6 linoleic acid and arachidonic acid were negatively associated with lower nociceptive thresholds at three and at five, respectively, anatomical sites. In contrast, omega-3 alpha-linolenic acid, eicosapentaenoic acid, docosahexaenoic acid and the n-6/n-3 PUFA ratio were not associated with nociceptive thresholds at any site. Pain cases had significantly lower nociceptive thresholds than non-case controls at all anatomical sites.
conclusionA higher n-6/n-3 PUFA ratio was associated with more pain conditions. Omega-6 PUFAs may promote a generalized upregulation of nociceptive processing.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.