The DOI matches its Crossref record; 8 of the 8 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
What is the role of α‐linolenic acid for mammals?
Abstract
This review examines the data pertaining to an important and often underrated EFA, α‐linolenic acid (ALA). It examines its sources, metabolism, and biological effects in various population studies, in vitro, animal, and human intervention studies. The main role of ALA was assumed to be as a precursor to the longer‐chain n‐3 PUFA, EPA and DHA, and particularly for supplying DHA for neural tissue. This paper reveals that the major metabolic route of ALA metabolism is β‐oxidation. Furthermore, ALA accumulates in specific sites in the body of mammals (carcass, adipose, and skin), and only a small proportion of the fed ALA is converted to DHA. There is some evidence that ALA may be involved with skin and fur function. There is continuing debate regarding whether ALA has actions of its own in relation to the cardiovascular system and neural function. Cardiovascular disease and cancer are two of the major burdens of disease in the 21st century, and emerging evidence suggests that diets containing ALA are associated with reductions in total deaths and sudden cardiac death. There may be aspects of the action and, more importantly, the metabolism of ALA that need to be elucidated, and these will help us understand the biological effects of this compound better. Additionally, we must not forget that ALA is part of the whole diet and should be seen in this context, not in isolation.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Chemistry and metabolism of lipids in the vertebrate retina
Fliesler, A. J., & Anderson, R. E. (1983) · Progress in Lipid Research · doi:10.1016/0163-7827(83)90004-8 · Cited by 1,052
Mechanisms of action of docosahexaenoic acid in the nervous system
Salem, N., Litman, B., Kim, H., & Gawrisch, K. (2001) · Lipids · doi:10.1007/s11745-001-0805-6 · Cited by 919
Burdge, G. C., & Wootton, S. A. (2002) · British Journal Of Nutrition · doi:10.1079/bjn2002689 · Cited by 812
Singh, R. B., Dubnov, G., Niaz, M. A., Ghosh, S., Singh, R., Rastogi, S. S., Manor, O., Pella, D., & Berry, E. M. (2002) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(02)11472-3 · Cited by 663
Burdge, G. C., Jones, A. E., & Wootton, S. A. (2002) · British Journal Of Nutrition · doi:10.1079/bjn2002662 · Cited by 598
Ziboh, V. A., Miller, C. C., & Cho, Y. (2000) · The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition · doi:10.1093/ajcn/71.1.361s · Cited by 310
Crystal Structure and Thermodynamic Analysis of Human Brain Fatty Acid-binding Protein
Balendiran, G. K., Schnütgen, F., Scapin, G., Börchers, T., Xhong, N., Lim, K., Godbout, R., Spener, F., & Sacchettini, J. C. (2000) · Journal of Biological Chemistry · doi:10.1016/s0021-9258(19)61478-x · Cited by 217
Hansen, H. S., & Jensen, B. (1985) · Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Lipids and Lipid Metabolism · doi:10.1016/0005-2760(85)90009-8 · Cited by 189
Cited by
Conversion of α -linolenic acid to longer-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in human adults
Burdge, G. C., & Calder, P. C. (2005) · Reproduction Nutrition Development · doi:10.1051/rnd:2005047 · Cited by 939
Goyens, P. L., Spilker, M. E., Zock, P. L., Katan, M. B., & Mensink, R. P. (2006) · The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition · doi:10.1093/ajcn/84.1.44 · Cited by 392
Flachs, P., Horakova, O., Brauner, P., Rossmeisl, M., Pecina, P., Franssen-van Hal, N., Ruzickova, J., Sponarova, J., Drahota, Z., Vlcek, C., et al. (2005) · Diabetologia · doi:10.1007/s00125-005-1944-7 · Cited by 388
Dietary α-linolenic acid and health-related outcomes: a metabolic perspective
Burdge, G. C., & Calder, P. C. (2006) · Nutrition Research Reviews · doi:10.1079/nrr2005113 · Cited by 281
Low Plasma N-3 Fatty Acids and Dementia in Older Persons: The InCHIANTI Study
Cherubini, A., Andres-Lacueva, C., Martin, A., Lauretani, F., Iorio, A. D., Bartali, B., Corsi, A., Bandinelli, S., Mattson, M. P., & Ferrucci, L. (2007) · The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences · doi:10.1093/gerona/62.10.1120 · Cited by 95
Metadata
- Authors
- Sinclair, A. J., Attar‐Bashi, N. M., & Li, D.
- Venue
- Lipids
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2002-12
- Volume
- 37
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 1113-1123
- ISSN
- 0024-4201 (ISSN-L)
- 1558-9307
- OpenAlex
- W1513732013
- Cited by
- 264
- References
- 8
- FWCI
- 10.47
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
How to cite
Cite CoChat for the checks on this page, and the paper for its own findings.
- This page
- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: What is the role of α‐linolenic acid for mammals? https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1007/s11745-002-1008-x
- The paper
- Sinclair, A. J., Attar‐Bashi, N. M., & Li, D. (2002). What is the role of α‐linolenic acid for mammals? Lipids. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11745-002-1008-x
Data sources
Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
