Diet and the essential fatty acid status of term infants

Abstract

Long‐chain polyunsaturated fatty acids with 20 and 22 carbon atoms (LCPs) seem to play an important role during the rapid development of the infant brain in the late fetal and early postnatal period. These LCPs are integral constituents of biological membranes and they are involved in the regulation of functional properties like fluidity, permeability and activity of membrane‐bound enzymes. Human milk contains LCPs in an amount of 0.5–3 wt% of total fatty acids, whereas commercially available infant formulae are almost free of them. Recently, several clinical trials, primarily with preterm infants, have reported that the content of LCPs in the blood and a functional parameter like visual acuity correlate with the content of LCPs in the diet. In this clinical trial we studied the effect of different diets on the fatty acid pattern of plasma and erythrocyte lipids of healthy term infants during the first 3 months of life. Breast‐fed infants were compared with formula‐fed babies who received a commercially available formula without LCPs or a new experimental formula enriched with LCPs that was similar to human milk. The results indicate that the introduction of milk feeding leads to marked differences in the blood lipid composition during the first months of life, independent of the feeding regimen. Secondly, the supplementation of a formula with LCPs seems to result in a blood lipid composition similar to infants fed with human milk. This supports the hypothesis that the newborn term infant has a limited desaturating capacity and depends on an exogenous supply of LCPs during the first months of life.

Effect of Two Types of Fish Oil Supplementation on Plasma and Erythrocyte Phospholipids in Formula-Fed Term Infants

“…Such changes over time are in agreement with those reported in 1-to 4-month-old term infants living in Western countries [11,13,15], though there were disparities in DHA and linolenic acid contents in breast milk among these studies and the present work. In particular, the level of linolenic acid in the milk of French mothers was lower, in accordance with our previous works [26][27][28], than that of infant blood lipids.…”

“…The addition of dietary DHA to term infant formulas is suggested to provide a DHA status in formula-fed infants similar to breastfed infants, and this can be achieved by adding dietary sources rich in DHA such as fish oils and egg phospholipids [13,14,16,[20][21][22]. However, it has been shown that higheicosapentaenoate (EPA, 20:5n-3) fish oils decrease arachidonic acid (AA, 20:4n-6) concentrations in plasma phospholipids [3,14,23] and impair growth in preterm infants [24].…”

A novel infant formula milk with added long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids from single-cell sources: a study of growth, satisfaction and health

“…Incorporation of LCPs into formula milks in a readymade form may also be bene®cial as the ability to synthesize LCPs from their parent compounds may be inadequate at birth (Kohn et al, 1994;Koletzco et al, 1996). Furthermore there are theoretical effects of dietary fatty acids on immune function which have not been extensively studied in human infants (Meydani et al, 1993;Bell et al, 1996).…”

Dietary 20:4n-6 and 22:6n-3 Modulates the Profile of Long- and Very-Long-Chain Fatty Acids, Rhodopsin Content, and Kinetics in Developing Photoreceptor Cells

“…It appears that feeding preformed DHA or AA better supports the increase in 20:4n-6 and 22:6n-3 level in the growing retina compared with feeding LNA without AA ϩ DHA. It has been reported that 22:6n-3 is the preferred fatty acid for raising the level of 22:6n-3 in the retina (38,39). When animals are deficient in LNA, supplementing with a source of LNA will increase the level of 22:6n-3 compared with the deficient group (6,17,40).…”