Feeding minipigs fish oil for four weeks lowers postprandial triacylglycerolemia

We wanted to establish a minipig model for the study of postprandial lipemia and plasma lipid clearance after fish oil consumption. Seven minipigs were fed a fish oil-enriched nonpurified diet and a control diet for 4 wk in a randomized cross-over study. After each intervention period, each pig was challenged with a gastric fat load (2 g fat/kg body) and an intravenous fat bolus (0.1 g/kg body) on separate days. Frequent blood samples were collected for 6 h after the gastric fat load and for 40 min after the intravenous bolus. The fish oil-enriched diet was associated with lower triacylglycerol, glycerol and nonesterified fatty acid concentrations in the hours after the gastric fat load than the control diet (P < 0.05). In contrast, the triacylglycerol disappearance rate after the intravenous fat bolus was not affected by fish oil (P = 0.19). In conclusion, dietary fish oil supplementation attenuates postprandial lipemia in minipigs similarly to what occurs in humans. Minipigs could serve as a useful model for future studies of this phenomenon. We observed no significant effect of fish oil supplementation on plasma triacylglycerol clearance and thus were unable to identify the mechanism explaining the attenuated lipemia in minipigs.