Effect of fish oil supplementation in pregnancy on the fatty acid composition of erythrocyte phospholipids and breast milk lipids

Figures & data

Table I.  Fatty acid composition (g/100 g of total fatty acids) of the erythrocyte membranes, breast milk and serum of the women supplemented with fish oil (n = 7) and primrose oil (n = 4).

	Erythrocyte membrane		Breast milk		Serum
	Fish oil	Fish oil	Fish oil	Primrose oil	Fish oil	Fish oil	Primrose oil	Primrose oil
Fatty acids	T0	T1			T0	T1	T0	T1
14:0	0.3 ± 0.1	0.4 ± 0.2	6.4 ± 2.2	5.9 ± 1.7	2.6 ± 0.6	2.8 ± 0.3	1.0 ± 0.7	2.2 ± 0.1
16:0	22.9 ± 2.6	23.1 ± 0.9	21.9 ± 1.9	21.9 ± 1.5	29.9 ± 4.7	23.9 ± 1.1	29.2 ± 1.3	24.1 ± 3.0
18:0	18.4 ± 2.2	19.6 ± 2.8	4.9 ± 1.8	5.8 ± 0.8	8.4 ± 3.3	9.1 ± 1.9	9.7 ± 1.2	9.9 ± 3.3
ΣSFAs	41.6	43.1	33.2	33.6	40.9	35.8	39.9	36.2
16:1 n-7	0.8 ± 0.6	0.6 ± 0.2	4.5 ± 3.2	3.1 ± 0.7	1.6 ± 2.6	1.1 ± 0.3	1.6 ± 1.4	5.9 ± 0.3
18:1 n-9	12.4 ± 2.9	14.0 ± 3.1	32.7 ± 0.1	34.0 ± 3.7	19.4 ± 2.7	15.4 ± 0.7	19.4 ± 2.0	14.4 ± 3.6
ΣMUFAs	13.2	14.6	37.2	37.1	21.0	16.5	21.0	20.3
18:2 n-6(LA)	12.3 ± 1.5	12.9 ± 1.9	19.4 ± 3.2	23.1 ± 1.3	22.3 ± 4.2	22.3 ± 2.4	20.4 ± 5.0	24.7 ± 3.1
18:3 n-3	tr	tr	2.9 ± 2.3	1.9 ± 0.2	0.5 ± 0.9	0.7 ± 0.4	0.3 ± 0.2	0.4 ± 0.2
20:4 n-6(AA)	11.9 ± 2.9	9.8 ± 3.5	0.45 ± 0.4	0.6 ± 0.2	3.4 ± 1.4	2.6 ± 0.6	1.2 ± 1.0	5.5 ± 1.1*
20:5 n-3(EPA)	0.4 ± 0.1	0.7 ± 0.1***	0.10 ± 0.03	ND	0.5 ± 0.1	1.2 ± 0.3***	0.6 ± 0.1	0.6 ± 0.5
22:6 n-3(DHA)	2.6 ± 0.1	3.3 ± 0.2**	0.14 ± 0.11	0.03 ± 0.09	0.9 ± 0.3	2.1 ± 0.6**	0.2 ± 0.1	0.1 ± 0.4
Σn-6 PUFAs	24.2	22.7	19.85	23.7	25.7	24.9	21.6	30.2
Σn-3 PUFAs	3.1	4.0	3.1	1.93	1.9	4.0	1.1	1.1
n-6/n-3	7.8 ± 1.3	5.6 ± 0.9***	6.3 ± 2.1	13.8 ± 2.3***	13.7 ± 1.4	6.2 ± 1.0**	19.6 ± 2.7	27.4 ± 2.8**

Notes: Data are expressed as means ± SD. T₀ = basal period; T₁ = after the period of the study intervention (15 days). tr = traces. SFAs, saturated fatty acids; MUFAs, monounsaturated fatty acids; PUFAs, polyunsaturated fatty acids. *p = 0.012, **p = 0.03, ***p = 0.04 compared with T₀ for each supplementation.