A Dietary Supply of Docosahexaenoic Acid Early in Life Is Essential for Immune Development and the Establishment of Oral Tolerance in Female Rat Offspring.
BACKGROUND
The early postnatal period is critical for immunity, and feeding docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) has been demonstrated to affect immune development.


OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study was to determine the importance of feeding DHA during suckling and/or weaning on immune function and oral tolerance (OT).


METHODS
Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 nutritionally adequate diets throughout lactation (21 d): a control (n = 12, 0% DHA) diet or a DHA (n = 8, 0.9% DHA) diet. At 11 d, suckled pups from each dam were randomly assigned to a mucosal OT challenge: placebo or ovalbumin. At week 5, all pups systemically received ovalbumin + adjuvant to induce systemic immunization. At 21 d, pups from each dam were randomly assigned to 1 of the 2 diets for 21 d in a factorial design after which immune function and OT were assessed.


RESULTS
Feeding dams DHA during lactation resulted in a 40-60% higher splenocyte production of interleukin (IL)-10 when stimulated with concanavalin A, lipopolysaccharide (LPS), or ovalbumin and a 100% higher production of interferon (IFN)-γ with LPS (P < 0.05) than feeding the control diet to the pups. In comparison with pups fed the control diet, feeding DHA at weaning resulted in a 25% lower type 1 T helper (IL-1β) and type 2 T helper (IL-6) response by splenocytes after LPS stimulation and a 33% lower plasma concentration of ovalbumin-specific immunoglobulin (Ig) G (P < 0.05). Pups that did not receive additional DHA during the study had a 70% higher plasma concentration of ovalbumin-specific IgE than did the pups that received DHA at suckling and/or weaning (P < 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
Feeding additional DHA during suckling had a beneficial programming effect on the ability of immune cells to produce IFN-γ and IL-10, and feeding DHA during weaning resulted in a lower inflammatory response. Providing no dietary DHA in either of the critical periods of immune development prevented the establishment of OT in female rat offspring.
Department of Agricultural Food and Nutritional Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Caroline
C
Richard
Department of Agricultural Food and Nutritional Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Erin D
ED
Lewis
Department of Agricultural Food and Nutritional Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Susan
S
Goruk
Department of Agricultural Food and Nutritional Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada catherine.field@ualberta.ca.
Catherine J
CJ
Field
D000375:Aging; D000824:Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D000818:Animals; D000833:Animals, Suckling; D016207:Cytokines / Q000378:metabolism; D019587:Dietary Supplements; D004281:Docosahexaenoic Acids / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005260:Female; D005512:Food Hypersensitivity / Q000517:prevention & control; D007108:Immune Tolerance / Q000187:drug effects; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000097:blood; D007774:Lactation; D039382:Maternal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D008934:Mitogens / Q000276:immunology*; D010047:Ovalbumin / Q000276:immunology*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D014886:Weaning
D016207:Cytokines; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D008934:Mitogens; D004281:Docosahexaenoic Acids; D010047:Ovalbumin
docosahexaenoic acid; immune development; lactation period; nutritional immunology; offspring; weaning period