Type 1 diabetes (T1D) results from the inflammatory destruction of pancreatic β‐cells. In this study, we investigated the effect of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) supplementation on stimulated inflammatory cytokine production in white blood cells (WBC) from infants with a high genetic risk for T1D.

This was a multicenter, two‐arm, randomized, double‐blind pilot trial of DHA supplementation, beginning either in the last trimester of pregnancy (41 infants) or in the first 5 months after birth (57 infants). Levels of DHA in infant and maternal red blood cell (RBC) membranes and in breast milk were analyzed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Inflammatory cytokines were assayed from whole blood culture supernatants using the Luminex multiplex assay after stimulation with high dose lipopolysaccharide (LPS), 1 µg/mL.

The levels of RBC DHA were increased by 61–100% in treated compared to control infants at ages 6–36 months. There were no statistically significant reductions in production of the inflammatory cytokines, IL‐1β, TNFα, or IL‐12p40 at any of the six timepoints measured. The inflammatory marker, high‐sensitivity C‐reactive protein (hsCRP), was significantly lower in breast‐fed DHA‐treated infants compared to all formula‐fed infants at the age of 12 months. Three infants (two received DHA) were removed from the study as a result of developing ≥two persistently positive biochemical islet autoantibodies.

This pilot trial showed that supplementation of infant diets with DHA is safe and fulfilled the pre‐study goal of increasing infant RBC DHA levels by at least 20%. Inflammatory cytokine production was not consistently reduced.