Fatty acid composition of plasma and red cell phosphoglycerides in full term infants and their mothers.

TLDR: The main lipid classes in 20 women from the south‐western part of Sweden at term pregnancy and of umbilical cord plasma of their newborn infants were studied and determination of the fatty acid pattern of plasma phosphoglycerides and of cephalins and lecithin of red cells was made.

Abstract: SUMMARY Methods have been adapted and their reproducibility tested for the determination of blood lipids and the fatty acid composition of the phosphoglycerides. The main lipid classes in 20 women from the south-western part of Sweden at term pregnancy and of umbilical cord plasma of their newborn infants were studied. Determinations were made of the fatty acid pattern of plasma phosphoglycerides and of cephalins and lecithin of red cells. The concentration of the major lipid classes in maternal and umbilical cord plasma agreed well with previously reported figures from other countries. The maternal plasma fatty acid pattern of phosphoglycerides was similar to that of adult males. The mothers and their infants had identical concentrations of the total sum of all polyunsaturated fatty acids in plasma phosphoglycerides, in red cell lecithin and in red cell cephalins. The infants' pattern differed from the mothers' by much lower concentrations of the parent fatty acids, linoleic and linolenic acids, and correspondingly increased concentrations of the more polyunsaturated fatty acids of the two series. The fatty acid composition in the red cell lecithin of mother and infant reflected that in the corresponding plasma. The cephalins contained more polyunsaturated fatty acids than the lecithin in both mothers' and infants' red cells. The study produced no biochemical evidence of an essential fatty acid deficiency in these newborns. The identical concentration of total polyunsaturated fatty acids in blood phosphoglycerides of mothers and infants in combination with the pronounced change in the ratio between the parent fatty acids and the highly polyunsaturated derivates, suggest a homeo-static regulation of the fatty acid composition of the blood phosphoglycerides.