Phospholipids Research Conference
From Sunday 31st August to Wednesday 3rd September, an international conference took place at Hilton Coylumbridge Conference Centre in Aviemore. Its focus was on essential fatty acids (what they are, how and why they work), brain functioning, diseases related to fatty acids, and lipid-based treatments.
Hosted by The Ness Foundation, UHI Millennium Institute, Scotland, the conference was in honour of the late Professor David Horrobin, who was the world's foremost pioneer in this field. The meeting included the first David F Horrobin memorial lecture, given by Professor John Stein, Professor of Physiology at the University of Oxford.
Major sessions included: Brain fatty acids — imaging, spectroscopy, and candidate genes; Fatty acids in human studies; Huntington’s disease; Phospholipase activation and inhibition and cell signalling; Neurodevelopmental disorders; and Alzheimer’s disease and peroxidation.
One of the afternoon sessions was on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, chaired by Dr Abhijit Chaudhuri of the University of Glasgow, and ME Research UK was represented by Dr Vance Spence and Dr Neil Abbot of the Department of Medicine, University of Dundee. Three very interesting presentations were given: a) In vivo spectroscopy — Dr Abhijit Chaudhuri, University of Glasgow; b) Essential fatty acids in CFS — Dr Basant Puri, Imperial College London; and c) Blood flow responses, plasma isoprostanes and oxidative stress in ME/CFS patients — Dr Vance Spence, ME Research UK (read an overview of Dr Spence’s talk below). They were followed by a lively discussion.
The proceedings of this conference will be published in a special issue of Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes and Essential Fatty Acids in April 2004, marking the first anniversary of the passing of Professor Horrobin. The published details of each of these presentations within this special issue will be eagerly awaited.
Vascular and Biochemical Aspects of ME/CFS
Dr Vance Spence, Department of Medicine, University of Dundee
Figure 1
Dr Spence began with a description of orthostatic intolerance, the inability to maintain normal blood pressure when upright. There is evidence of defective vasoconstriction and vascular pooling in ME/CFS patients, sometimes with obvious changes in the the legs. Experimental evidence has been found of decreased vascular distensibility in the legs of some ME/CFS patients with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) (Stewart, Circulation 2002).
Dr Spence described the role and range of vasodilators which are dependent on the endothelium, the inner lining of vessel walls. Abnormalities of endothelial function in ME/CFS patients have been reported, and can be detected by changes in blood flow in response to increasing doses of endothelium-dependent vasodilators such as nitric oxide and acetylcholine (Spence, American Journal of Medicine, 2000; Khan, Clinical Physiology and Functional Imaging, 2003).
Figure 2
Biochemical abnormalities have also been found. Several research groups have shown that oxidative stress, a disturbance in the equilibrium status of pro-oxidant/anti-oxidant systems, occurs in ME/CFS patients (Kennedy, Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis, 2003).
Possible physiological and biochemical mechanisms linking these apparently separate findings — POTS, endothelial sensitivity, and oxidative stress — were discussed, as was the need for further biomedical research.
