Skip to main content
NUTRITION 2025 Main banner

Aging and Chronic Disease (Poster Session)

(P22-071-25) Differential Effect of Dietary Stearate and Palmitate-Enriched Diets on Plasma Lipidomic Profiles in Moderately Hypocholesterolemic Women

Monday, June 2, 2025
11:45 AM - 12:45 PM ET
Location: Poster Board B-98

    Presenting Author(s)

  • WZ

    Wen Zhang, MS

    graduate student
    Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) at Tufts University
    Boston, Massachusetts, United States

    • Co-Author(s)

  • JG

    Jean M. Galluccio

    Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) at Tufts University
    Boston, Massachusetts, United States

  • GM

    Gregory Matuszek

    Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) at Tufts University, United States

  • GD

    Gregory G. Dolnikowski

    Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) at Tufts University
    Boston, Massachusetts, United States

  • AL

    Alice H. Lichtenstein, DSc (she/her/hers)

    Gershoff Professor of Nutrition Science and Policy Director, Cardiovascular Nutrition Laboratory and Senior Scientist
    JM USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, Tufts University
    Boston, Massachusetts, United States

  • Nirupa R. Matthan, PhD (she/her/hers)

    Scientist 1/Associate Professor
    Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) at Tufts University
    Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Disclosure(s):
Wen Zhang, MS: No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.


Objectives: Dietary saturated fat intake is linked to unfavorable plasma lipidomic profiles and higher CVD risk, but the effects of individual dietary saturated fatty acids (SFAs) remain unclear. We compared the effect of diets enriched in palmitate (16:0), stearate (18:0) and oleate (18:1) on plasma complex lipid profiles and CVD risk factors.

Methods: Secondary analysis using fasting plasma samples from a randomized crossover study (N=20 mildly hypercholesterolemic postmenopausal women,64±7 years, BMI 26.4±3.4kg/m2). Participants consumed each of 3 isocaloric diets enriched in either 16:0, 18:0, or 18:1 for 5 weeks with a 2-week washout. Plasma complex lipid profiles, including cholesterol esters (CE), di- and tri-glycerides (DG, TG), phosphatidylcholines (PC), ceramides (CER), and sphingomyelins (SM) were measured using mass spectrometry. Diet differences were assessed using repeated measures ANOVA with Tukey-Kramer post-hoc comparison and FDR correction. PLS-DA was used to identify metabolites driving diet group separation (VIP score >1), and Spearman correlation for association between metabolites and CVD risk factors.

Results: Distribution (%) of individual classes was similar between diets, except for PC, which was significantly higher (p < 0.05) after the 16:0 (22%) compared to the 18:0 (19%) and 18:1 (18%) diets. PLS-DA revealed overlap in metabolites between the 18:0 and 18:1 diets, distinct from the 16:0 diet. Component 1 explained 53% of the variance with key separating metabolites from the following classes: PC [42], CER [30], DG [11], TG [8], SM [7], and CE [3]. Most of these metabolites were higher after the 16:0 relative to the other diets (p < 0.05). An inverse association was observed between HexCer (d18:1/26:1), PC aa C30:0, and 8 TGs with long carbon chains (C47 to C59) and HDL-C (r=-0.60 to -0.88, p< 0.05), while 2 TGs (C57 and C58) were positively correlated with fasting TG levels (r=0.77 to 0.85, p< 0.05) after the 16:0 diet but not after the 18:0 or 18:1 diets.

Conclusions: Diets enriched in 18:0 resulted in a more favorable plasma lipidomic profile, similar to 18:1 and distinct from 16:0, highlighting differential effects of dietary SFAs on lipid metabolism and CVD risk factors.

Funding Sources: USDA/AFRI 2012-67017-30213, 2022-67017-36244 and USDA agreement No. 58-8050-9-004.