Dietary intake and tissue concentration of fatty acids in omnivore, vegetarian and diabetic pregnancy

Effect of placental function on fatty acid requirements during pregnancy

“…Figure 2 Fatty acids may be found in the blood and tissues linked to other molecules by ester bonds; triglyceride (TG), phospholipid (PL) and cholesterol ester (CE); or as non-esterified fatty acids NEFA. AA and DHA as a proportion of total fatty acids are shown for the diet of pregnant mothers (Lakin et al, 1998), 1 the adipose tissue (Leaf et al, 1995), 2 maternal and cord blood plasma phospholipids (Otto et al, 1997), 3 triglyceride (Berghaus et al, 2000), 4 cholesterol ester (Hoving et al, 1994), 5 and NEFA (Benassayag et al, 1999), 6 the placental microvillous and basal membranes (Powell et al, 1999), 7 and adipose tissue and brain at birth (Clandinin et al, 1981 Figure 3 The theoretical rate of oxidation was calculated from the rate of maternal energy expenditure (9453 MJ/day), the proportion of that energy derived from fat (30%), the energy content of fat (39 kJ/g) (Butte, 2000) and the proportion of DHA in the oxidised fat (0.1% DHA; Figure 2). The DHA content of fetal tissues was calculated from the lean mass (calculated as body weight minus the weight of fat, skeleton and skin (Widdowson, 1974)), the fat mass (Widdowson, 1974) and the weight of the placenta (Hytten, 1974) and brain (Clandinin et al, 1980) and the fat and DHA concentration of the brain (Clandinin et al, 1980;Jamieson et al, 1999), placenta (Widdowson & Spray, 1951;Lakin et al, 1998) and adipose tissue (Clandinin et al, 1981).…”

“…The average omnivore dietary intake of DHA has been estimated in several countries including the UK (220 mg/ day) (Lakin et al, 1998), Canada (160 mg/day) (Innis & Elias, 2003) and Norway (300 mg/day) (Helland et al, 2001). These average intakes of DHA are in the same range as the likely combined rate of maternal and fetal DHA utilisation, but within populations there are much lower and higher intakes.…”

“…In some studies, these have been reported as 'zero' or 'trace' (Sanders & Reddy, 1992;Reddy et al, 1994), but in reality it is very difficult to exclude DHA from the diet completely as it is found in significant amounts in eggs but also in measurable amounts in highly processed foods, which may contain small amounts of eggs and other DHA containing raw ingredients. We previously recorded an intake of around 10 mg/day (Lakin et al, 1998) in vegetarian women, but more recently have measured higher intakes (30 mg/day) using a more comprehensive database and improved questionnaire (Masson et al, 2003). At the other end of the spectrum, women consuming diets dominated by marine products or regularly ingesting marine oil supplements can achieve very high intakes of DHA (41000 mg/ day) (Helland et al, 2001).…”

“…The fatty acid composition of the maternal diet has a direct effect on the availability of individual fatty acids within the fetal circulation (Van Houwelingen et al, 1992;Reddy et al, 1994;Al et al, 1996Al et al, , 2000Otto et al, 1997;Lakin et al, 1998;De Vriese et al, 2002). However, cross-country comparisons of fatty acid concentrations in pregnancy indicate that the gradient of the line relating maternal and cord blood individual fatty acids is greater for DHA than AA (Otto et al, 1997).…”

The Placenta in a Diabetic Pregnancy

“…In T1DM placental transfer and distribution among lipid classes of arachidonic acid are altered, and arachidonic increments are stored in the placenta [96]. Also the linoleate content is higher in placental tissues [97] which may be converted into arachidonic acid and further contribute to the increase. Long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids are important for foetal development in general and for the brain in particular.…”