Summary: High concentrations of adipose tissue ALA were associated with lower Prevalence Ratios of the metabolic syndrome compared with low ALA (0.81; 95% CI: 0.66, 1.00, for the comparison between the highest and the lowest quintiles; P for trend , 0.02). Higher concentrations of adipose tissue ALA were associated with a lower PR among homozygote (0.67; 95% CI: 0.53, 0.86) and heterozygote (0.84; 95% CI: 0.72, 0.99) carriers of the FADS2 T allele, but not among homozygote carriers of the deletion variant allele (0.99; 95% CI: 0.78, 1.27; P for interaction: 0.08).