Background. Pathogenetic factors that cause the development of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) remain poorly understood, namely, the peculiarities of saturated fatty acids (SFAs) in the blood serum at different degrees of disease severity, which is quite an important task. Objective: to evaluate serum level of SFAs depending on IBD severity. Materials and methods. Thirty-seven patients with IBD were examined, their average age was (38.5 ± 2.1) years. Depending on the severity of the disease, the patients were divided into 2 groups: group I — with IBD of moderate severity (n = 24) and group II — with severe IBD (n = 13). The control group consisted of 16 healthy people. The quantitative content of SFAs in the blood serum of the examined patients was determined by gas chromatography. Median (Me), lower (25%) and upper (75%) quartiles were used to describe the data. Results. Biochemical analysis revealed a tendency to decrease in the level of short-chain SFA (butyric acid; p > 0.05) and a significant increase in the total content of medium- and long-chain SFAs (MCSFAs and LCSFAs; p < 0.001) in the serum of group I and II patients compared to the controls. It was found that with increasing severity of IBD, there was a decrease in LCSFAs content in the blood (r = –0.420, p = 0.048). The serum spectrum of SFAs was analyzed and a significant increase in all MCSFAs fractions was detected in both groups of patients: caproic acid (p < 0.001), caprylic acid (p < 0.001), capric acid (p ≤ 0.002), undecylic acid (p ≤ 0.006) and lauric acid (p ≤ 0.001). Characteristically, the content of the most MCSFAs fractions had a tendency to decrease (p > 0.05) in group I against group II of patients. The content of LCSFAs, namely: tridecylic acid (p ≤ 0.012), myristic acid (p < 0.001), pentadecylic acid (p ≤ 0.012), palmitic acid (p < 0.001), stearic acid (p ≤ 0.001) and heneicosylic acid (p < 0.001), increased significantly in group I and II of patients, while the content of margaric and eicosanoic acids — only in group I compared to the controls. Almost all LCSFAs (except tridecylic acid) had a tendency to increase in group I against group II. Conclusions. It has been shown that the content of SFAs in the blood depends on the degree of IBD severity. The mechanism of SFAs action with different carbon chain lengths is multidirectional and is associated with the effect on pro-/anti-inflammatory mediators and with the maintenance of the immune and intestinal homeostasis. The necessity of determining serum SFAs in IBD to correct the identified disorders has been confirmed.
