Advances in therapeutic applications of fish oil: A review

Abstract

Fish oil is oil that is extracted from fish tissue and contains numerous essential fatty acids. It is considered as a functional food because of its functional component mainly polyunsaturated fatty acids, which has positive impact on human health when consumed in a sufficient quantity. Fish oil offers more benefits over the direct consumption of fish. The prevalence of non-communicable diseases has increased worldwide over the past few years. Several experimental investigations on in vivo and in vitro model proved that fish oil possess several health benefits including anti-obesity, anti-cancer, cardioprotective, anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective, hepatoprotective, and immunostimulatory properties. In this concern, fish oil has a potential therapeutic efficacy as nutraceutical agent depending on their dose and duration. Fish oil enriched with essential fatty acids can regulate various signaling pathways involving different transcriptional factors which can control many physiological functions. Therefore, this review focuses on some molecular mechanisms through which fish oil may protect from various life threatening diseases namely dyslipidemia, diabetes, cardiovascular disorder, kidney disorder, cancer and many more.