Abstract
The effects of feeding diets with different fatty acids on the composition of fatty acids and vitamin E status in maternal milk & serum and pup's serum were studied. Dietary fats(10% by wt) include on oil(CO), soybean oil(SO), perilla seed oil(PO : about 60% , C18 : 3 $\omega$3) and fish oil(FO : rich in C20 : 5$\omega$3, eicosapentaenoic acid = EPA & 22 : 6$\omega$3, docosahexaenoic acid = DHA), Sprague-Dawley rats weighing 200-250g, were fed experimental diets from pregnancy through lactation period. Maternal milk was obtained by gentle squeezing after 30 minutes of oxytocin(0.2 IU, intraperitoneal) injection. The fatty acid compositions of milk and serum were analyzed at day-2 and day-15. The concentrations of vitamin E in maternal milk and serum and pup's serum were also analyzed. The groups of CO, SO and PO which had no DHA in their diet, contained DHA in their milk, The rations of EPA+DHA/arachidonic acid(AA) were higher in PO group than those in either CO or SO group. This seemed to be due not only to more conversion from C18 : 3$\omega$3 to C20 : 5$\omega$3 and C22 : 6$\omega$3 but also to inhibition of C18 : 2$\omega$6 conversion to C20 : 4$\omega$6. More DHA was found in day-2 milk than in day-15 milk. It was also noted that milk contained more DHA was found in day-2 milk than in day-15 milk. It was also noted that milk contained more DHA than serum and this difference was larger in day-2 than in day-15 milk. Even though the concentrations of vitamin E both in maternal serum and milk were lower in PO and FO groups fed highly unsaturated fat than in CO or SO groups, pup's serum did not show a significant difference among all the experimental groups indicating that the pups man secure their essential nutrients by the biomagnification mechanism.
