Serum fatty acids and risk of advanced β-cell autoimmunity: a nested case–control study among children with HLA-conferred susceptibility to type I diabetes

Background/Objectives: N-3 (omega-3) fatty acids have been reported to decrease the risk for development of β-cell autoimmunity and clinical type I diabetes. We set out to examine whether different serum fatty acids are associated with the development of advanced β-cell autoimmunity in children carrying human leukocyte antigen DQ β-1 (HLA-DQB1)-conferred susceptibility to type I diabetes. Subjects/Methods: Within a cohort, serum total fatty acid composition of 108 children with advanced β-cell autoimmunity and of 216 matched persistently autoantibody-negative controls was analyzed using gas chromatography. Non-fasting serum samples were obtained annually at the ages of 1–6 years. Conditional logistic regression was applied to analyze the associations between advanced β-cell autoimmunity and serum fatty acids. Results: The serum fatty acid profile of myristic acid (odds ratio (OR) 1.48, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.09–2.00, P =0.011), pentadecanoic acid (OR 1.65, 95% CI 1.19–2.28, P =0.003), palmitoleic acid isomers 16:1 n-7 (omega-7) (OR 1.41, 95% CI 1.03–1.92, P =0.030) and 16:1 n-9 (omega-9) (OR 1.45, 95% CI 1.05–2.01, P =0.026) and conjugated linoleic acid (OR 1.67, 95% CI 1.16–2.41, P =0.006) closest to the time of the appearance of multiple autoantibodies were positively associated with the risk of advanced β-cell autoimmunity after adjustment for potential confounding factors. Serum linoleic acid showed inverse, marginal association with the end point. Conclusions: Serum biomarkers of milk and ruminant meat fat consumption are directly associated and linoleic acid is inversely associated with advanced β-cell autoimmunity in children with HLA-conferred susceptibility to type I diabetes.