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Some Aspects of Neonatal Essential Fatty Acid Status are Altered by Linoleic Acid Supplementation of Women during Pregnancy^1,2,

Department of Human Biology, University of Limburg, NL-6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands

To study the effect of maternal linoleic acid [18:2(n-6), LA] supplementation during pregnancy on neonatal essential fatty acid status, pregnant women with relatively low plasma linoleic acid concentrations before 16 wk of gestation (n = 21) were supplied with foods rich in linoleic acid, resulting in an additional intake of 10 g/d of linoleic acid from the 20th week of gestation until delivery. One of the two control groups consisted of pregnant women with comparably low plasma linoleic acid concentrations at the start of the study (LL-control group, n = 22); the other consisted of women with habitually high plasma linoleic acid concentrations (HL-control group, n = 21). The neonatal essential fatty acid status was assessed by determining the fatty acid composition of phospholipids (PL) isolated from umbilical plasma and umbilical vessel walls. The maternal linoleic acid status in the LA-supplemented group increased to a level comparable to that of the HL-control group, but the neonatal linoleic acid status did not differ from that of either control group. Linoleic acid supplementation did result in slightly, but significantly, higher total amounts of (n-6) long-chain polyenes in umbilical plasma and vein vessel wall phospholipids compared with the LL-control group. This increase was associated with significantly lower total amounts of (n-3) long-chain polyenes. In the HL-control group, the concentration of (n-3) long-chain polyenes in umbilical plasma and vessel walls was significantly lower than in the LA-supplemented and the LL-control group. The results of this study indicate that maternal linoleic acid supplementation can affect some aspects of neonatal essential fatty acid status.

KEY WORDS: • linoleic acid • pregnancy • essential fatty acid status • umbilical cord • humans

¹ Supported by a grant from Nutricia BV, Zoetermeer, The Netherlands.

² The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 USC section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

³ To whom correspondence should be addressed.

⁴ To whom reprint requests should be addressed.

Manuscript received 17 November 1994. Revision accepted 5 July 1995.