PHILADELPHIA - Omega-3 fatty acids found in oily fish may have
diverse health-promoting effects, potentially protecting the
immune, nervous, and cardiovascular systems. But how the health
effects of one such fatty acid -- docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) --
works remains unclear, in part because its molecular signaling
pathways are only now being understood. Toshinori Hoshi, PhD,
professor of Physiology, at the Perelman School of Medicine,
University of Pennsylvania, and colleagues showed, in two papers
out this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, how fish oils help lower blood pressure via
vasodilation at ion channels. In vascular smooth muscle cells,
such as those that line blood vessels, ion channels that span
the outer membrane of a cell to let such ions as sodium,
calcium, and potassium in and out, are critical to maintaining
proper vessel pressure. Omega-3 fatty acids bind directly to a
specific group of channels that allow potassium ions to move
out, which affects how much voltage is