Fish oil supplementation improves visual evoked potentials in children with phenylketonuria

Abstract

Visual evoked potentials (VEP) were measured in 36 patients with early-treated phenylketonuria (PKU; aged 1 to 11 years) and good metabolic control before and after supplementation with omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFA) from fish oil. Patients with PKU had significantly longer P100 latencies than 22 age-matched control subjects. After 3 months of LC-PUFA supplementation, VEP latencies improved significantly in PKU patients but did not change in 12 untreated healthy children. The authors conclude that omega-3 LC-PUFA are essential substrates for nervous system function even beyond infancy.

A randomized trial of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid supplementation in infants with phenylketonuria

“…Both children and adults with PKU have been found to have poor LC-PUFA status (Galli et al 1991, Sanjurjo et al 1994, Moseley et al 2002. The addition of DHA and AA (Agostoni et al 2000) or DHA and eicosapentaenoic acid by fish oil (Beblo et al 2001) to the diets of older children with PKU raises the levels of these fatty acids in plasma and improves the visual response of treated children. The effects of improved DHA status in infancy may be only transient, and, when infants are no longer fed on an LC-PUFA enriched formula, any improvement in neurodevelopment may be lost in later years.…”

Fat and Fatty Acid Requirements and Recommendations for Infants of 0–2 Years and Children of 2–18 Years

“…Beyond infancy, evidence linking EFA and LPCs with neurological benefits is limited to special population groups with very low dietary intakes of EPA and DHA, such as children with phenylketonuria [Beblo et al, 2001[Beblo et al, , 2007. These studies indicate that increasing DHA status with fish oil supplements is consistent with improvements in speed of information processing in the central nervous system as assessed by latencies of VEPs [Beblo et al, 2001], as well as marked improvements of coordination and fine motor skills [Beblo et al, 2007].…”

The role of omega-3 fatty acids in child development

“…Two studies (one of them an open label study) in treated PKU children showed that these children had prolonged visual evoked potentials compared to healthy controls. After supplementation with DHA, EPA (+ALA and AA) wave latency of visual evoked potentials decreased in both studies, indicating more rapid central nervous system information processing (Beblo et al, 2001). The open-label study also showed significant improvements of EPA+DHA supplementation on a test of motor function and coordination (Beblo et al, 2007).…”