Beneficial Effects of Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in Gestational Diabetes: Consequences in Macrosomia and Adulthood Obesity

Table 2

Fatty acid composition of control and omega-3 PUFA diets.

Fatty acids	Control diet (mg/g)	EPAX diet (mg/g)
C14:0	0.4	0.4
C16:0	5.1	2.1
C18:0	3.9	1.7
C18:1	18.5	9.1
C18:2n-6	21.3	11.2
C18:3n-3	0.83	0.5
C20:4n-6 (AA)	ND	0.9
C20:5n-3 (EPA)	ND	22.2
C22:6n-3 (DHA)	ND	2.0
Total fatty acids	50.0	50.0
n-6 PUFA	21.30	12.06
n-3 PUFA	0.83	24.59
(n-6)/(n-3)	25.80	0.49
(n-3)/(n-6)	0.04	2.04
SFA	9.40	4.26
PUFA	22.13	36.65
MUFA	18.50	9.07
PUFA/SFA	2.35	8.60

ND = not detectable. This table is adapted from our previous studies [27, 65, 91].
The chemical composition of control diet was as follows (g/kg dry diet): starch, 587; casein, 200; cellulose, 50; sucrose, 50; mineral mix, 40; vitamin mix, 20; DL-methionine, 3; vegetable oil-Isio-4 (Lesieur, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France), 50. Total oil represented 5% of the diet. In the omega-3 PUFA diet, half of the vegetable oil-Isio-4 was replaced by EPAX-7010 (the omega-3 PUFA oil). The vegetable Isio-4 oil contained the following: 47.2 mg/g 18:2 (n-6); 1.7 mg/g total (n-3); and 40.2 mg/g monounsaturated fatty acids (largely 18:1). EPAX-7010 oil, in the form of ethyl ester, contained approximately 85% (n-3) PUFA, that is, EPA, 70%, DHA, 12%, and -tocopherol, 2.1 to 3.2%. It means that EPAX oil represented 2.5% of the diet. Since the omega-3 PUFA consisted of 85% of the 2.5% EPAX oil, the total n-3 PUFA represented only 2.1% of the total diet. After diets’ preparation, the lipids from diets were extracted according to the method described in Yessoufou et al., 2006 [27], and then transmethylated by BF3/methanol after saponification, and fatty acids were analysed by gas liquid chromatography.