Background: Maternal essential fatty acid status declines during pregnancy, and as a result, neonatal concentrations of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6n 3) and arachidonic acid (AA, 20:4n 6) may

Receptors for insulin and other hormones are often influenced by their environment, including fatty acid content and membrane fluidity. Y79 retinoblastoma cells enriched with arachidonic or docosahexaenoic acid show an increase in membrane fluidity determined by fluorescence polarization using the plasma membrane-specific probe, trimethylammonium-diphenylhexatriene. Unlike cells enriched with p...

Arachidonic acid (ARA) metabolites produced by cyclo-oxygenase and lipoxygenase are important mediators maintaining physiological renal function. However, the effects of exogenous ARA on kidney function in vivo remain unknown. This study examined the effects of long-term oral ARA administration on normal renal function as well as inflammation and oxidative stress in aged rats. In addition, we m...

Healthy pregnant women (n 23) were supplemented with fish-oil capsules (2.7 g n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids/d) from the 30th week of gestation until delivery. Subjects in a control group were either supplemented with olive-oil capsules (4 g/d, n 6) or received no supplementation (n 10). Fatty acid compositions of the phospholipids isolated from umbilical plasma and umbilical arterial and veno...

BACKGROUND A wealth of information on the functional roles of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and arachidonic acid (ARA) from cellular, animal, and human studies is available. Yet, there remains a lack of cohesion in policymaking for recommended dietary intakes of DHA and ARA in early life. This is predominantly driven by inconsistent findings from a relatively small number of randomised clinical tr...