Example 2. Clinical Nutrition

The design of diets to impact circulating levels on ω3-PUFAs and anti-inflammatory bioactive molecules will be performed by collaborators at Penn State University. Following this intervention, established and emerging CVD risk factors including lipids and lipoproteins, apolipoproteins, antioxidant activity, inflammatory cytokines, and cellular adhesion molecules, insulin, glucose, blood pressure, endothelial health (FMD) will be examined. It is at this point that the molecular nutrition research described above will be utilized. (1). The specific biomarkers identified using altered gene expression will be utilized. Lymphocytes will be extracted from individuals at the end of the intervention period. Quantitative gene expression studies will determine if the same genetic alterations seen by direct addition of the nutritional component or bioactive is observed in vivo. Often the gene expression studies using real-time PCR are much more sensitive that the established CVD risk factors mentioned above (2). The mechanism of action of a nutritional component or bioactive can be used to determine why certain individuals are not as responsive as others. Many of the nuclear receptors examined as being targets of dietary lipids are polymorphic in humans. Using sensitive PCR techniques we will examine know single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the targets for the dietary component.