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Response of (n-3) and (n-6) Fatty Acids in Piglet Brain, Liver and Plasma to Increasing, but Low, Fish Oil Supplementation of Formula^{1, 2,}

L. Dianne Arbuckle, France M. Rioux, Murray J. Mackinnon^*, Nina Hrboticky and Sheila M. Innis^,3

Departments of Human Nutrition Paediatrics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada V5Z 4H4 ^* Statistical Consulting Service, The Children's Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada V5Z 4H4

Addition of fish oils to infant formula provides (n-3) long-chain polyenoic fatty acids (LCP), specifically 22:6(n-3), to infants fed formula rather than human milk. Most fish oils, however, contain high levels of 20:5(n-3) and low (n-6) LCP. These studies determined the brain total, synaptic plasma membrane phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylcholine, and plasma and liver phospholipid fatty acids of piglets fed from birth to 15 d with formula containing (percent fatty acids) 34% 18:2(n-6), 0.8% 18:3(n-3) and 0, 2 or 6 g/L menhaden oil, or sow milk. The brain 22:6(n-3) was higher and 22:4(n-6) lower in piglets fed 6 g/L menhaden oil compared with sow milk. Brain levels of 20:5(n-3) did not increase, or levels of 20:4(n-6) decrease, with increasing dietary (n-3) LCP. A diet concentration-dependent increase in 20:5(n-3) and decrease in 20:4(n-6) (P < 0.0001) in liver phospholipid showed no evidence of maximum saturation or depletion, respectively, over the range of (n-3) LCP intake studied. The fish oil supplementation was effective in supplying 22:6(n-3) to the developing brain. The accompanying increase in 20:5(n-3) and decrease in 20:4(n-6), important eicosanoid precursors, in plasma and liver phospholipid show the need for caution in the use of fish oils low in (n-6) LCP as a source of (n-3) LCP for infant formula.

KEY WORDS: • infant formula • fish oil • pigs • long-chain polyenoics

¹ Supported by a grant from the Medical Research Council of Canada (MRC-Industry Award). LDA is supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada: 1967 Science and Engineering Scholarship. SMI is a Career Investigator supported by British Columbia Children's Hospital Research Division.

² Presented in part at the 81st Annual Meeting of The American Oil Chemists' Society, April 1990, Baltimore, MD [Arbuckle, L. D., Mackinnon, M. J., Rioux, F. M. & Innis, S. M. (1990) Effect of supplementing infant formula with fish oil on piglet brain and liver (n-6) and (n-3) fatty acids. Inform 1: 280 (abs. C2)].

³ To whom correspondence and reprint requests should be addressed.

Manuscript received 14 September 1990. Revision accepted 2 April 1991.