High-fat meal increases peripheral blood mononuclear cell pro-inflammatory cytokine expression in African-American women.

African-American (AA) women have elevated predominance of inflammatory diseases concurrent with local inflammation resulting in compromised metabolic function. The purpose of the study was 2-fold: 1) to examine the gene and protein expression of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokine secretion by peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) obtained from AA and Caucasian-American (CA) women in response to an acute high-fat meal; and 2) to explore the influence of race (AA vs. CA) on PBMC reactivity. Ten AA and 11 CA women consumed a high-fat meal with baseline and 4 h postprandial venous blood draws. PBMCs were incubated for 3 h then messenger RNA expression and supernatant protein concentration was used to examine inflammatory profiles. All women had a postprandial increase in interleukin (IL)-8 gene expression, IL-8 protein concentration, and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) protein concentration ( < 0.05). AA women had a postprandial increase in IL-6, IL-8, and TNF-α protein concentration ( < 0.05). AA women had higher postprandial IL-1β protein concentration and gene expression compared with CA women ( < 0.05). Our data uncovers the specific impact of race and time on pro-inflammatory PBMC (IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, and TNF-α) expression profiles in response to an acute high-fat meal challenge. African Americans have higher predominance of inflammatory disease. We explored the potential race impact on peripheral blood mononuclear cell reactivity in response to a meal. A pro-inflammatory response to an acute high-fat meal with race impact was observed possibly contributing to health disparities impacting African-American women.