Plasma Kinetics of Lutein Supplementation to Healthy Chinese Subjects and Effect of Omega‐3 Fatty Acids on Lutein Absorption—A Single Oral Administration Study

The current study aimed to determine the dynamic changes of plasma lutein and its kinetics profiles after a single oral administration of lutein, as well as the effect of omega‐3 fatty acids on lutein absorption in healthy Chinese people. Forty volunteers were randomly assigned to four dosage groups: 10mg lutein (Group L10), 20mg lutein (Group L20), 40mg lutein (Group L40), and 20mg lutein plus 560mg omega‐3 fatty acid (Group LF20). Fasting venous blood samples were collected at pre‐dosing and 4, 12, 24, 48, 72, 120, 168, 240, 360 h of post‐dosing in four groups. Plasma lutein concentrations at different time points were measured by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) for kinetics analysis. We found that plasma lutein concentrations in Group L40 were significantly higher than Group L10 at 12h, 24h, 48h ( p <0.01) and 72h post‐dosing ( p <0.05). The AUC 0‐360h , AUC 0‐∞ and C max were significantly higher in Group L40 than Group L10 and Group L20 ( p <0.01) and the results showed a dose‐dependent linear trend. The T max of plasma lutein was at 12h. There were no adverse events for a single supplementation with 40mg of lutein. In summary, our results showed that the absorption of lutein was positively correlated with dosage, and a single co‐administration of omega‐3 fatty acids did not affect the absorption of lutein. Support or Funding Information Supported by the National Key Technology Support Program (No. 2012BAD33B01‐2)