Methods and results

A randomized, controlled, double‐blind trial is conducted to examine the effects of consumption of control oil, 4.2 g/d ALA, 7.2 g/d ALA, 1.8 g/d DHA+EPA, or 3.6 g/d EPA+DHA for 12 weeks on lipid profiles, fatty acid composition of PBMCs and in vitro production of interleukin‐6 (IL‐6) and tumor necrosis factor‐α (TNF‐α) by PBMCs in 123 subjects with hypercholesteremia. After the intervention, subjects who receive a low and high dose of DHA/EPA experience 11.99% and 15.78% decreases in triglycerides which is significantly different from that of the control group (p < 0.05). The in vitro study indicates that supplementation of high‐dose DHA+EPA induces the greatest decrease of IL‐6 production by PBMCs relative to other groups (p = 0.046). ALA intervention significantly increases the PBMCs composition of ALA but not EPA/DHA.