de Pablo P, et al. - A comparative analysis was performed of the erythrocyte membrane polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) between pre-rheumatoid arthritis (RA) individuals and matched controls from a population-based sample. Authors also examined the hypothesis that higher levels of longer chain n-3 PUFA were associated with lower risk of RA. An inverse relation was noted between erythrocyte levels of the n-6 PUFA linoleic acid (LA) with the risk of RA. On the other hand, no associations were observed for other n-6 or n-3 PUFA.