title: Maternal fish oil supplementation during lactation is associated with reduced height at 13 years of age and higher blood pressure in boys only.
abstract: Dietary long-chain n-3 PUFA (n-3 LCPUFA) in infancy may have long-term effects on lifestyle disease risk. The present follow-up study investigated whether maternal fish oil (FO) supplementation during lactation affected growth and blood pressure in adolescents and whether the effects differed between boys and girls. Mother-infant pairs (n 103) completed a randomised controlled trial with FO (1·5 g/d n-3 LCPUFA) or olive oil (OO) supplements during the first 4 months of lactation; forty-seven mother-infant pairs with high fish intake were followed-up for 4 months as the reference group. We also followed-up 100 children with assessment of growth, blood pressure, diet by FFQ and physical activity by 7-d accelerometry at 13·5 (sd 0·4) years of age. Dried whole-blood fatty acid composition was analysed in a subgroup (n 49). At 13 years of age, whole-blood n-3 LCPUFA, diet, physical activity and body composition did not differ between the three groups. The children from the FO group were 3·4 (95 % CI 0·2, 6·6) cm shorter (P=0·035) than those from the OO group, and tended to have less advanced puberty (P=0·068), which explained the difference in height. There was a sex-specific effect on diastolic blood pressure (P sex×group=0·020), which was driven by a 3·9 (95 % CI 0·2, 7·5) mmHg higher diastolic blood pressure in the FO compared with the OO group among boys only (P=0·041). Our results indicate that early n-3 LCPUFA intake may reduce height in early adolescence due to a delay in pubertal maturation and increase blood pressure specifically in boys, thereby tending to counteract existing sex differences.
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports,University of Copenhagen,1958 C Frederiksberg,Denmark.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lauritzen
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports,University of Copenhagen,1958 C Frederiksberg,Denmark.
authors.forename: S E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Eriksen
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports,University of Copenhagen,1958 C Frederiksberg,Denmark.
authors.forename: M F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Hjorth
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports,University of Copenhagen,1958 C Frederiksberg,Denmark.
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Nielsen
authors.affiliation: 3SSI,2300 S Copenhagen,Denmark.
authors.forename: S F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Olsen
authors.affiliation: 4Department of Kinesiology,University of Waterloo,Waterloo,ON,Canada, N2L 3G1.
authors.forename: K D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Stark
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports,University of Copenhagen,1958 C Frederiksberg,Denmark.
authors.forename: K F
authors.initials: KF
authors.lastname: Michaelsen
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports,University of Copenhagen,1958 C Frederiksberg,Denmark.
authors.forename: C T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Damsgaard
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D041923:Adolescent Development; D000328:Adult; D001827:Body Height; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D003718:Denmark / Q000453:epidemiology; D019587:Dietary Supplements / Q000009:adverse effects*; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D005395:Fish Oils / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006130:Growth Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D007774:Lactation; D008297:Male; D039382:Maternal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D058246:Prehypertension / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D011628:Puberty, Delayed / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D012306:Risk; D017747:Seafood; D012737:Sex Factors
chemical_list: D005395:Fish Oils
keywords: 
                 n-3 Long-chain PUFA;  
                    n-3 LCPUFA long-chain n-3 PUFA;  DBP diastolic blood pressure;  FO fish oil;  MAP mean arterial blood pressure;  OO olive oil; Growth; Health; Programming; Puberty