CONCORDANCE AND CONTROVERSY IN DETERMINING THE
OMEGA-3 INDEX IN PLASMA AND RED BLOOD CELLS MEMBRANE
AMELIA TERO-VESCAN1, SZENDE VANCEA2*, ADINA HUŢANU3, RÉKA BORKA-BALÁS4, MINODORA DOBREANU3
University of Medicine and Pharmacy Târgu Mureş, Romania
1Department of Pharmaceutical Biochemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy
2Department of Physical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, PharmaQuest Ltd. Bioanalytical Laboratory
3Department of Laboratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine
4Department of Paediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, PharmaQuest Ltd. Bioanalytical Laboratory
*corresponding author: vancea.szende@umftgm.ro
Download Full Article

Abstract:
Omega 3 fatty acids present immunomodulatory properties demonstrated by numerous studies. Accurate determination of
fatty acids (FA) in different biological matrices is of special physiopathological and clinical value. The aims of our study
were to develop a LC/MS method for the determination of main FA in plasma and red blood cell membranes (RBC) and to
establish a possible correlation between the amount of omega 3 acids in plasma and in the membrane of RBC.
Determinations were performed on a Kinetex C18 column (50 x 3 mm, 2.6 μm), using an isocratic mixture of acetonitrile:
0.2% acetic acid in water as the mobile phase, at a flow rate of 0.4 mL/min. The method permitted the separation of nine FA,
plasma concentration and, respectively, RBC membrane values were used for the calculation of parameters (ratios) of clinical
interest. The existence of a correlation between plasma levels of certain FA and their incorporation into RBC membrane was
determined on 26 blood samples. The study showed a significant difference (p < 0.001) between plasma concentrations /RBC
membrane values, and on the other hand, that there is a correlation between the AA/DHA (r = 0.7540) and AA/(EPA + DHA)
(r = 0.7807) ratio value in plasma and RBC membrane and a weak correlation between plasma levels of AA/EPA ratio (r = 0.3906)
or Omega-3 Index (r = 0.4991) and the FA levels into the RBC membrane.

Top