RT Journal Article T1 Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) as a functional food: Is it beneficial or not? T2 Ácido linoleico conjugado (ALC) como alimento funcional: ¿es o no beneficioso? A1 Badawy, Sara A1 Liu, Yanan A1 Guo, Mingyue A1 Liu, Zhenli A1 Xie, Changqing A1 Marawan, A. Marawan A1 Ares Lombán, Irma A1 López Torres, Bernardo A1 Martínez Caballero, Marta A1 Maximiliano Guerra, Jorge Enrique A1 Martínez Larrañaga, María Rosa A1 Wang, Xu A1 Anadón Navarro, Arturo Ramón A1 Martínez Caballero, María Aranzazu AB Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) has attracted great attention in recent years as a popular class of functional food that is broadly used. It refers to a group of geometric and positional isomers of linoleic acid (LA) with a conjugated double bond. The main natural sources of CLA are dairy products, beef and lamb, whereas only trace amounts occur naturally in plant lipids. CLA has been shown to improve various health issues, having effects on obesity, inflammatory, anti-carcinogenicity, atherogenicity, immunomodulation, and osteosynthesis. Also, compared to studies on humans, many animal researches reveal more positive benefits on health. CLA represents a nutritional avenue to improve lifestyle diseases and metabolic syndrome. Most of these effects are attributed to the two major CLA isomers [conjugated linoleic acid cis-9,trans-11 isomer (c9,t11), and conjugated linoleic acid trans-10,cis-12 isomer (t10,c12)], and their mixture (CLA mix). In contrast, adverse effects of CLA have been also reported, such as glucose homeostasis, insulin resistance, hepatic steatosis and induction of colon carcinogenesis in humans, as well as milk fat inhibition in ruminants, lowering chicken productivity, influencing egg quality and altering growth performance in fish. This review article aims to discuss the health benefits of CLA as a nutraceutical supplement and highlight the possible mechanisms of action that may contribute to its outcome. It also outlines the feasible adverse effects of CLA besides summarizing the recent peer-reviewed publications on CLA to ensure its efficacy and safety for proper application in humans. PB Elsevier SN 0963-9969 YR 2023 FD 2023-06-16 LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/102765 UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/102765 LA eng NO Badawy, S., Liu, Y., Guo, M., Liu, Z., Xie, C., Marawan, M. A., ... & Martínez, M. A. (2023). Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) as a functional food: Is it beneficial or not?. Food Research International, 113158. NO All authors contributed in performing data curation, investigation, validation, and writing original draft. Xu Wang, Arturo Anadon and María-Aranzazu Martínez were responsible for critically reading the manuscript, revision the original draft, review and editing. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript. DS Docta Complutense RD 8 abr 2025