Erythrocyte fatty acid composition in term infants fed human milk or a formula enriched with a low eicosapentanoic acid fish oil for 4 months.
When term infants are fed standard formula that does not contain long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFA), they still show lower levels of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in red blood cell (RBC) phospholipids by several weeks or months postnatally. This study was designed in order to evaluate a potential alternative for supplementing term infant formulas with DHA by adding a high-DHA/low-eicosapentanoic acid fish oil to levels similar to that in human milk (0.3%). A total of 37 term infants were included in the study at 3 days of life. DHA concentrations remained stable between inclusion and 4 months of life at around 8% of the RBC phospholipids in the LC-PUFA enriched formula-fed group whereas it decreased significantly in the standard formula-fed group. In the human milk-fed group, RBC DHA concentrations at 4 months of age were significantly lower than that at birth and were significantly correlated with the duration of breast feeding (r = 0.85; P = 0.0002). A significant decrease of arachidonic acid between inclusion and 4 months of age was observed in the enriched formula-fed group and reached a mean value at 4 months, which was significantly lower than that observed in the human milk or standard formula-fed groups (P<0.0001).


CONCLUSIONS
Supplementing term formulas with a high-docosahexaenoic acid/low-eicosapentanoic acid fish oil up to 4 months of age is efficient in improving docosahexaenoic acid status, however it increases the risk of impaired n-6 fatty acid status.
Lapillonne
A
A
Department of Neonatology, Hopital Edouard Herriot, Lyon, France.
Brossard
N
N
Claris
O
O
Reygrobellet
B
B
Salle
B L
BL
D019587:Dietary Supplements; D004281:Docosahexaenoic Acids / Q000032:analysis*; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007227:Infant Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D010743:Phospholipids / Q000032:analysis*; D011446:Prospective Studies
D010743:Phospholipids; D004281:Docosahexaenoic Acids