Abstract
Long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFA) are the major determinants of the structure and function of retina, any impairment in their maternal and dietary supply might result in the defective retinal development, structure and function. The present study is aimed to investigate the effects of different pre- and postnatal diet varying only in their dietary n-6 and n-3 fatty acid content but not in the total energy on the molecular environment of retina. Female weanling Wistar-NIN rats received a diet enriched with either linoleic acid (LA) or alpha linolenic acid (ALA) or long chain n-3 PUFA (fish oil, FO) for 90 days, and mated with stock diet fed male rats. The first generation male pups of ALA and FO group were continued with the respective diet (ALA-ALA and FO-FO). Male pups delivered by LA fed mothers were divided into three groups; continued with either mother's diet (LA-LA) or assigned a diet enriched with either ALA (LA-ALA) or LCn-3PUFA (LA-FO). The effect of this dietary regimen on the expression of genes involved in fatty acid metabolism and phototransduction; total fatty acid composition, was analyzed in the retina after 105 days of post weaning feeding. The data show that prenatal and post weaning feeding of LCn-3PUFA enriched diet upregulated the expression of genes involved in phototransduction and fatty acid metabolism; decreased the level of arachidonic acid in retina. These results suggest that feeding LCn-3PUFA both at prenatal and postnatal could be beneficial for the molecular environment of retina.
Highlights
Long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFA) are derived from shorter chain fatty acids through several desaturation and elongation reactions
The desaturase and elongase enzyme system is shared by linoleic acid 18:2n-6 (LA) and α-linolenic acid 18:3n-3 (ALA) for the formation of respective long chain products of n-6 and n-3 family
Metabolites of LC-PUFA are known to function as ligands to transcription factors of many genes that are involved in cellular differentiation and growth and metabolism of lipid, protein, and carbohydrate
Summary
Long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFA) are derived from shorter chain fatty acids through several desaturation and elongation reactions. One of the findings of the study was that the maternal intake of ALA diet increased the levels of LC n-3 PUFA in the skeletal muscle of the offspring which is suggested to be beneficial in terms of increased insulin sensitivity [24].
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