THE INFLUENCE OF DOCOSAHEXAENOIC ACID (DHA) ON RAT OVULATION

Abstract

Pregnant rat dams were fed diets enriched in DHA (0.3g/100g diet), EPA (0.3), arachidonic acid (0.3) or mixed EPA and DHA (0.3/.3 or 0.15/0.15). The diet influence on tissue composition, ovulation and ovarian prostaglandin synthesis was assessed in female offspring at 26 days of age following ovulation induction. EPA alone or in concert with DHA at 0.3g resulted in the lowest ovarian long‐chain n‐6 PUFA incorporation. This was offset by elevated LA tissue incorporation when compared to DHA alone. When DHA was fed alone, tissue long‐chain n‐6 increased exceeding that seen when ARA was fed, though not differing from control (0.15g LA/100g diet).With DHA feeding alone, total PGE increased almost 2‐fold over control while neither differed from the other treatments. The increased PGE was induced by marked elevation in PGE3 with unaltered PGE2 release. PGE2 remained unchanged in all dietary treatments while PGE3 increased in response to DHA alone. Total PGF did not differ from control in any dietary treatment though PGF2α in response to ARA was significantly (P<0.05) greater than that seen with DHA. DHA at the 0.3 level, alone or with EPA, resulted in elevated PGF3α when compared to control or to all of the experimental diets. Consumption of the experimental diets did not alter ovulation from control though the EPA only diet yielded a higher ovulation when compared to the D/E .15 diet.