According to a recent clinical trial published by Yale University researchers, oleic acid, an essential nutrient, is lacking in the fat tissues of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) a disease characterized by an abnormal immune response which attacks the central nervous system.
 
Oleic acid is found at high levels in a number of cooking oils, meats, cheese, nuts, sunflower seeds, eggs, and more, according to the researchers. Based on the triggering effect that low levels of oleic acid had on MS symptoms, the researchers concluded that a new dietary strategy inhibiting the effects of MS is worth pursuing.
 
A lack of oleic acids characteristic of MS patients appeared to deplete the patients’ bodies of metabolic sensors which activate T cells. T cells mediate the immune system’s response to infectious diseases, and without such immunosuppressing effects, the immune system can attack central nervous system cells and cause vision loss, pain, lack of coordination, and other debilitating symptoms of MS.
 
When researchers introduced oleic acids into the fatty tissue donated by MS patients in in vitro settings, their levels of regulatory T cells increased significantly. There were 8 donors involved in this study, with an average age of 39 years.  
 
“We’ve known for a while that both genetics and the environment play a role in the development of MS,” senior author David Hafler, professor of Neurology, said. “This paper suggest that one of the environmental factors involved is diet.”
 
Hafler noted that obesity triggers unhealthy levels of inflammation, and is a known risk factor for MS, which led him and his research team to investigate the role of diet and particular nutrients in MS pathology.
 
More information and statistical significance will be needed in order to determine any potential efficacy that a diet rich in oleic acid may have on MS patients, Hafler stressed.
 
“In summary, we define what we believe to be a new mechanism by which environmental lipids drive cellular-specific metabolic programs that establish a positive feedback loop designed to enhance the stability and function of Tregs via the CD25/STAT5/FOXP3 axis[…] We show that oleic acid partially restored defects in the suppressive function of Tregs isolated from patients with MS, which further suggests the importance of fatty acid species in counteracting inflammatory signals in the tissue.”