Evening primrose oil has a favorable effect on plasma essential fatty acids and uremic skin symptoms in hemodialysis patients. - GreenMedInfo Summary
Effects of oral supplementation with evening primrose oil for six weeks on plasma essential fatty acids and uremic skin symptoms in hemodialysis patients.
Nephron. 1999 Feb;81(2):151-9. PMID: 9933750
Department of Pharmacotherapy, Meiji Pharmaceutical University, International Medical Center of Japan, Tokyo, Japan.
Abnormalities in plasma composition of essential fatty acids (EFAs) may be associated with the etiology of pruritus and other skin problems in patients undergoing hemodialysis. To study whether an oral supplementation with omega-6 (n-6) EFAs would restore deranged plasma EFAs and ameliorate skin symptoms, 9 and 7 dialysis patients were randomly assigned to receive either gamma-linolenic acid (GLA)-rich evening primrose oil (EPO) or linoleic acid (LA) (2 g/day each) for 6 weeks. Plasma concentrations of EFA were analyzed by gas chromatography and uremic skin symptoms were assessed for dryness, pruritus and erythema by questionnaire and visual inspection in a double-blind manner. The patients given EPO exhibited a significant (p<0.05) increase in plasma dihomo-gamma-linolenic acid (a precursor of anti-inflammatory prostaglandin E1) with no concomitant change in plasma arachidonic acid (a precursor of pro-inflammatory prostaglandin E2 and leukotriene B4). In contrast, those given LA exhibited a significant (p<0.05) increase in LA but not in any other n-6 EFAs, whereas they exhibited a significant (p<0.05) decrease in plasma docosahexaenoic acid. The patients given EPO showed a significant (p<0.05) improvement in the skin scores for the three different uremic skin symptoms over the baseline values and a trend toward a greater improvement (0.05