Dietary supplementation with omega-3 fats, specifically DHA and EPA, is known to have beneficial health effects. A recent study sought to evaluate the efficacy of two different sources of omega 3 fats -- fish oil and krill oil.
The researchers performed gene expression profiling in the livers of mice fed diets supplemented with either fish or krill oil. They found that the krill oil downregulated the activity of pathways involved in hepatic glucose production and lipid and cholesterol synthesis. Krill oil supplementation also increased the activity of the mitochondrial respiratory chain.
According to the study, as reprinted on the website Green Med Info:
“Surprisingly ... [fish oil] modulated fewer pathways than a [krill oil]-supplemented diet and did not modulate key metabolic pathways regulated by [krill oil], including glucose metabolism, lipid metabolism and the mitochondrial respiratory chain. Moreover, [fish oil] upregulated the cholesterol synthesis pathway, which was the opposite effect of krill-supplementation.”