An Imbalance of Dietary Essential Fatty Acids Retards Behavioral Development in Mice

Wainwright, P.E.; Jalali, E; Mutsaers, L.; Bell, Rhonda C.; Cvitkovic, Suzan

doi:10.1016/s0031-9384(99)00028-1

Cited by 40 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Prenatal and/or postnatal dietary supplementation with excess ω-3 FA can reduce birth weight, impair postnatal growth, increase pre-and postnatal mortality, decrease brain sizes, decrease AA levels, decrease brain myelination and/or cause abnormal neurobehavioral function [20,34,36,49,51] and abnormal retinal function [25,52]. ABR studies investigating excess ω-3 FA supplementation in pregnant and lactating rats reported that the offspring had prolonged ABR wave latencies as well as a delay in the acoustic startle reflex and a decrease in brain AA concentrations when tested as postweanling pups [20,40,44].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reduced auditory acuity in rat pups from excess and deficient omega-3 fatty acid consumption by the mother

Church

Jen

Stafferton

et al. 2007

Neurotoxicology and Teratology

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Consumption of the nutrients omega-3 fatty acids (ω-3 FA) during pregnancy and lactation is considered beneficial to fetal and infant development. It may also reduce the incidence and severity of preterm births by prolonging gestational length. However several recent human and animal studies have reported that over-supplementation with ω-3 FA, especially in the form of fish oil, can have adverse effects on fetal and infant development and the auditory brainstem response (ABR). Our goal was to assess further the effects of ω-3 FA excess and deficiency during pregnancy and lactation on the offspring's auditory acuity as evidenced by their ABR thresholds. Female Wistar rats were given diets that were either deficient, adequate (control) or excess in ω-3 FA from day 1 of pregnancy through lactation. The offspring were ABR-tested at the postnatal age of 24 days. The rat pups in the Excess treatment condition had significantly elevated (worse) ABR thresholds, postnatal growth restriction, and a trend for increased postnatal mortality in comparison to the Control group. The Deficient group was intermediate. In conclusion, excess or deficient amounts of ω-3 FA during pregnancy and lactation in the laboratory rat adversely affected the offspring's auditory acuity. Postnatal thriving was also adversely affected. Consuming or administering large or inadequate amounts of ω-3 FA during pregnancy and lactation seems inadvisable because of the potential for adverse effects on infant development.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reduced auditory acuity in rat pups from excess and deficient omega-3 fatty acid consumption by the mother

Church

Jen

Stafferton

et al. 2007

Neurotoxicology and Teratology

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“…During the first 6 months of life, DHA accumulates at about 10 mg/day in the whole body of breast-fed infants, with over 48% of it appearing in the brain [6]. Dietary deficiency of ˆ-3 fatty acids during development are associated with reductions in the level of DHA in the brain and retina, with a reciprocal increase in the level of 22:5ˆ-6 in rats [2,7] and mice [8]. The alteration in brain DHA and long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid (LCPUFA) composition is also associated with changes in physicochemical properties [2] and behavior abnormalities [9,10] although the brain grows normally [11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maternal Diet with Diverse Omega–6/Omega–3 Ratio Affects the Brain Docosahexaenoic Acid Content of Growing Chickens

Ajuyah¹,

Wang²,

Sunwoo³

et al. 2003

Neonatology

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Eggs with diverse ω–6/ω–3 ratio produced by feeding breeder hens a wheat-soybean meal-basal diet containing 5% (wt/wt) sunflower oil (Hω6), 5% fish oil (Hω3) or 2.5% sunflower oil plus 2.5% fish oil (Mω3ω6) were incubated. The hatched chicks were fed a docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)-deficient diet up to 6 weeks of age. The fatty acid composition of chick brain was determined on 0, 2, 4 and 6 weeks and brain weight was taken on day 0 and day 42. The ω–6/ω–3 ratios were 37.12, 4.21 and 0.98 for the maternal diet; 28.36, 2.83 and 0.89 for the egg yolk; 1.94, 0.48 and 0.18 for hatched chick brain (p < 0.05). At 2 weeks of age, the ω–6/ω–3 ratios were 1.88, 0.81 and 0.60 for chicks hatched from hens fed Hω6, Mω3ω6 and Hω3 diets, respectively. The brain DHA contents at 0 and 2 weeks of age were Hω3 > Mω3ω6 < Hω6 (p < 0.05) and at 4 and 6 weeks of age Hω3 = Mω3ω6 > Hω6. Dietary C18:3ω3 in the starter and finisher diet did not increase brain DHA (p > 0.05). The significant increase in the content of C22:5ω3 at 6 weeks of age in group 1 birds with a concomitant reduction in DHA suggests a weak delta-4 desaturation but an effective delta-6 and delta-5 desaturation similar to human infants. Considering the role of DHA in early brain development and growth, the maternal supply of DHA during growth might be of importance when fed a DHA-deficient neonatal diet.

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“…Because n-6 and n-3 FA compete for the same biochemical substrates, their relative ratio is an important consideration in addition to the absolute amounts of each in the diet. Furthermore, because the n-6 FA are necessary for growth, when supplementing the diet with DHA it is important to supply additional n-6 FA, usually in the form of AA, to prevent growth retardation (Wainwright, Jalali, Mutsaers, Bell, & Cvitkovic, 1999;Wainwright, Xing, Mutsaers, McCutcheon, & Kyle, 1997).…”

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confidence: 99%

Spontaneously hypertensive and Wistar Kyoto rats differ in delayed matching‐to‐place performance and response to dietary long‐chain polyunsaturated fatty acids

Clements

Girard

Hua

et al. 2003

Developmental Psychobiology

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Spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) were used as an animal model of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This study investigated whether, in comparison with its progenitor strain, Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKY), SHR would show deficits in spatial short-term memory in the delayed-matching-to-place (DMP) version of the Morris water maze and be more distracted by exposure to a novel stimulus during recall trials. It also addressed whether dietary supplementation with long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFA) during development would increase brain docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and improve SHR behavioral performance. Beginning at weaning (21 days), male SHR and WKY were fed either a control or LCPUFA supplemented diet [0.5% arachidonic acid (AA) and 0.9% DHA], and behavioral testing began at 8 weeks. The first three tasks comprised a series of problems, each consisting of an initial search trial and subsequent recall trials. The intertrial interval (ITI) between the search and recall trial was either 60 s or 60 min. Surprisingly, in contrast to SHR, WKY did not appear to use a spatial short-term memory strategy to solve the problem. Notwithstanding, the performance of both strains was affected by the delay, such that they showed longer path lengths at the long compared with the short ITI. There was no effect of dietary supplementation on DMP performance. SHR fed the control diet were less responsive to a novel stimulus introduced on the first recall trial than WKY, and this tended to increase with supplementation. Analysis of brain fatty acid composition indicated that supplementation did increase DHA in the phosphatidylethanolamine fraction in WKY; however, in SHR, there was either no change (phosphatidylethanolamine) or paradoxical decreases (phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidyserine/phosphatidylinositol). Further research is needed to determine whether SHR are an appropriate model for studying a possible relationship between dietary LCPUFA and the behavioral symptoms of ADHD.

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An Imbalance of Dietary Essential Fatty Acids Retards Behavioral Development in Mice

Cited by 40 publications

References 25 publications

Reduced auditory acuity in rat pups from excess and deficient omega-3 fatty acid consumption by the mother

Reduced auditory acuity in rat pups from excess and deficient omega-3 fatty acid consumption by the mother

Maternal Diet with Diverse Omega–6/Omega–3 Ratio Affects the Brain Docosahexaenoic Acid Content of Growing Chickens

Spontaneously hypertensive and Wistar Kyoto rats differ in delayed matching‐to‐place performance and response to dietary long‐chain polyunsaturated fatty acids

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