“Our nervous system contains a predominance of n-3 (Omega-3) fatty acids, which is due to the fact that animal neurons first evolved in an environment rich in n-3 fatty acids but limiting in n-6 fatty acids. Under these conditions, n-3 fatty acids became, and remain, critical for complete nervous development.”
This is the idea stated in the remarkable paper of Lassek & Gaulin, 2011. A simple idea, but extremely effective in its logic.
The growing body of evidence on nutrition demonstrates that we truly “are what we eat”, and the fatty acid content of our diets has far-reaching physiologic implications, many of which we are only beginning to understand.
The current human nutritional supply does not reflect the necessity of a system that evolved in an environment with completely different characteristics. Therefore, it is very likely that today’s diet presents significant deficits, such as the n-3 that human cells are not able to synthesize from scratch. Luckily, nowadays the problem is well known and made viral through a constant media stream of information that stress the necessity to integrate our diet with good sources of n-3 fatty acids.
Unfortunately, this problem is not yet perceived by users of cell culture technology. The lipid supply is pretty much the same for all the cells that are used in labs and this causes a flattening of the diversity of the membrane network and its functionalities, as the Reports of our customers clearly show.
Even cells should eat fish during the culturing process … we’re working on it!!!
What’s in your mind? Give us your feedback by comment this article and let us know what you think!
Happy culturing!!!