Polymorphism in the fatty acid desaturase genes and diet are important determinants of infant n-3 fatty acid status.

L.B.S. Harsløf; L.H. Larsen; C. Ritz; Lars Hellgren; K. F. Michaelsen; U. Vogel; L. Lauritzen

Abstract

Background and objectives: Tissue docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) accretion in early infancy has been shown to be supported by the DHA-content of breast-milk and thus may decrease once complementary feeding takes over. Endogenous synthesis of DHA from alpha-linolenic acid has been shown to be very low and polymorphism in the genes that encodes the fatty acid desaturases (FADS) has little effect on DHA-status in adults. It is however unclear to what extent endogenous DHA-synthesis contributes to infant DHA-status.
Aim: To investigate the role of diet and FADS polymorphism on DHA-status at 9 months and 3 years.
Methods: This cross-sectional study with Danish infants use data from two prospective studies (EFiON and the SKOT cohort). We measured erythrocyte (RBC) DHA-status at 9 months (n=409) and 3 years (n=176) and genotyped 4 FADS tagSNPs, rs3834458, rs1535, rs174575 and rs174448 (n=401). Information about breastfeeding was obtained by questionnaires and fish intake was assessed by 7-day pre-coded food diaries.
Results: FADS-genotype, breastfeeding, and fish intake were found to explain 25% of the variation in infant RBC DHA-status (mean±SD: 6.6±1.9% of the fatty acids (FA%)). Breastfeeding was the most important contributor and still being breast-fed at 9 months was associated with 0.8 FA% higher DHA vs. no longer breast-fed (p<0.001). Two of the examined FADS-SNPs were highly correlated (rs1535 and rs3834458; r=0.98). Homozygous carriers of the minor allele of rs1535 had an increase in RBC DHA of 1.6 FA% relative to those with wild type, whereas minor allele carriers of rs174448 and rs174575 had a decrease of 0.9 (p=0.017) and 1.9 FA% (p=0.001), respectively. Each 10-gram increment in fish intake was associated with an increase in DHA-status of 0.3 FA%. At 3 years, fish intake was the only significant determinant of DHA-status (0.2 FA%/10g).
Conclusions: FADS-genotype and diet are both important determinants of DHA-status in late infancy.

Original language	English
Publication date	2013
Publication status	Published - 2013
Event	IUNS 20th International Congress of Nutrition - Granada, Spain Duration: 15 Sept 2013 → 20 Sept 2013 Conference number: 20 http://icn2013.com/

Conference

Conference	IUNS 20th International Congress of Nutrition
Number	20
Country/Territory	Spain
City	Granada
Period	15/09/2013 → 20/09/2013
Internet address	http://icn2013.com/

Keywords

FADS-genotype
Docosahexaenoic acid
Fish intake
Child nutrition
Breastfeeding

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@conference{69803bc74bd9482bafeb90715597e101,

title = "Polymorphism in the fatty acid desaturase genes and diet are important determinants of infant n-3 fatty acid status.",

abstract = "Background and objectives: Tissue docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) accretion in early infancy has been shown to be supported by the DHA-content of breast-milk and thus may decrease once complementary feeding takes over. Endogenous synthesis of DHA from alpha-linolenic acid has been shown to be very low and polymorphism in the genes that encodes the fatty acid desaturases (FADS) has little effect on DHA-status in adults. It is however unclear to what extent endogenous DHA-synthesis contributes to infant DHA-status. Aim: To investigate the role of diet and FADS polymorphism on DHA-status at 9 months and 3 years. Methods: This cross-sectional study with Danish infants use data from two prospective studies (EFiON and the SKOT cohort). We measured erythrocyte (RBC) DHA-status at 9 months (n=409) and 3 years (n=176) and genotyped 4 FADS tagSNPs, rs3834458, rs1535, rs174575 and rs174448 (n=401). Information about breastfeeding was obtained by questionnaires and fish intake was assessed by 7-day pre-coded food diaries. Results: FADS-genotype, breastfeeding, and fish intake were found to explain 25% of the variation in infant RBC DHA-status (mean±SD: 6.6±1.9% of the fatty acids (FA%)). Breastfeeding was the most important contributor and still being breast-fed at 9 months was associated with 0.8 FA% higher DHA vs. no longer breast-fed (p<0.001). Two of the examined FADS-SNPs were highly correlated (rs1535 and rs3834458; r=0.98). Homozygous carriers of the minor allele of rs1535 had an increase in RBC DHA of 1.6 FA% relative to those with wild type, whereas minor allele carriers of rs174448 and rs174575 had a decrease of 0.9 (p=0.017) and 1.9 FA% (p=0.001), respectively. Each 10-gram increment in fish intake was associated with an increase in DHA-status of 0.3 FA%. At 3 years, fish intake was the only significant determinant of DHA-status (0.2 FA%/10g). Conclusions: FADS-genotype and diet are both important determinants of DHA-status in late infancy.",

keywords = "FADS-genotype, Docosahexaenoic acid, Fish intake, Child nutrition, Breastfeeding",

author = "L.B.S. Harsl{\o}f and L.H. Larsen and C. Ritz and Lars Hellgren and Michaelsen, {K. F.} and U. Vogel and L. Lauritzen",

year = "2013",

language = "English",

note = "IUNS 20th International Congress of Nutrition, IUNS ; Conference date: 15-09-2013 Through 20-09-2013",

url = "http://icn2013.com/",

}

TY - ABST

T1 - Polymorphism in the fatty acid desaturase genes and diet are important determinants of infant n-3 fatty acid status.

AU - Harsløf, L.B.S.

AU - Larsen, L.H.

AU - Ritz, C.

AU - Hellgren, Lars

AU - Michaelsen, K. F.

AU - Vogel, U.

AU - Lauritzen, L.

N1 - Conference code: 20

PY - 2013

Y1 - 2013

N2 - Background and objectives: Tissue docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) accretion in early infancy has been shown to be supported by the DHA-content of breast-milk and thus may decrease once complementary feeding takes over. Endogenous synthesis of DHA from alpha-linolenic acid has been shown to be very low and polymorphism in the genes that encodes the fatty acid desaturases (FADS) has little effect on DHA-status in adults. It is however unclear to what extent endogenous DHA-synthesis contributes to infant DHA-status. Aim: To investigate the role of diet and FADS polymorphism on DHA-status at 9 months and 3 years. Methods: This cross-sectional study with Danish infants use data from two prospective studies (EFiON and the SKOT cohort). We measured erythrocyte (RBC) DHA-status at 9 months (n=409) and 3 years (n=176) and genotyped 4 FADS tagSNPs, rs3834458, rs1535, rs174575 and rs174448 (n=401). Information about breastfeeding was obtained by questionnaires and fish intake was assessed by 7-day pre-coded food diaries. Results: FADS-genotype, breastfeeding, and fish intake were found to explain 25% of the variation in infant RBC DHA-status (mean±SD: 6.6±1.9% of the fatty acids (FA%)). Breastfeeding was the most important contributor and still being breast-fed at 9 months was associated with 0.8 FA% higher DHA vs. no longer breast-fed (p<0.001). Two of the examined FADS-SNPs were highly correlated (rs1535 and rs3834458; r=0.98). Homozygous carriers of the minor allele of rs1535 had an increase in RBC DHA of 1.6 FA% relative to those with wild type, whereas minor allele carriers of rs174448 and rs174575 had a decrease of 0.9 (p=0.017) and 1.9 FA% (p=0.001), respectively. Each 10-gram increment in fish intake was associated with an increase in DHA-status of 0.3 FA%. At 3 years, fish intake was the only significant determinant of DHA-status (0.2 FA%/10g). Conclusions: FADS-genotype and diet are both important determinants of DHA-status in late infancy.

AB - Background and objectives: Tissue docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) accretion in early infancy has been shown to be supported by the DHA-content of breast-milk and thus may decrease once complementary feeding takes over. Endogenous synthesis of DHA from alpha-linolenic acid has been shown to be very low and polymorphism in the genes that encodes the fatty acid desaturases (FADS) has little effect on DHA-status in adults. It is however unclear to what extent endogenous DHA-synthesis contributes to infant DHA-status. Aim: To investigate the role of diet and FADS polymorphism on DHA-status at 9 months and 3 years. Methods: This cross-sectional study with Danish infants use data from two prospective studies (EFiON and the SKOT cohort). We measured erythrocyte (RBC) DHA-status at 9 months (n=409) and 3 years (n=176) and genotyped 4 FADS tagSNPs, rs3834458, rs1535, rs174575 and rs174448 (n=401). Information about breastfeeding was obtained by questionnaires and fish intake was assessed by 7-day pre-coded food diaries. Results: FADS-genotype, breastfeeding, and fish intake were found to explain 25% of the variation in infant RBC DHA-status (mean±SD: 6.6±1.9% of the fatty acids (FA%)). Breastfeeding was the most important contributor and still being breast-fed at 9 months was associated with 0.8 FA% higher DHA vs. no longer breast-fed (p<0.001). Two of the examined FADS-SNPs were highly correlated (rs1535 and rs3834458; r=0.98). Homozygous carriers of the minor allele of rs1535 had an increase in RBC DHA of 1.6 FA% relative to those with wild type, whereas minor allele carriers of rs174448 and rs174575 had a decrease of 0.9 (p=0.017) and 1.9 FA% (p=0.001), respectively. Each 10-gram increment in fish intake was associated with an increase in DHA-status of 0.3 FA%. At 3 years, fish intake was the only significant determinant of DHA-status (0.2 FA%/10g). Conclusions: FADS-genotype and diet are both important determinants of DHA-status in late infancy.

KW - FADS-genotype

KW - Docosahexaenoic acid

KW - Fish intake

KW - Child nutrition

KW - Breastfeeding

M3 - Conference abstract for conference

T2 - IUNS 20th International Congress of Nutrition

Y2 - 15 September 2013 through 20 September 2013

ER -