Effect of Prenatal Diet on Serum Cholesteryl Ester Fatty Acids in Newborn and Adult Rats. ∗

Summary

Experiments were conducted to study the effect of prenatal diet on the serum CEFA pattern of newborn rats and their mothers. Evidence was obtained confirming the existence of a typical “fetal” CEFA pattern in the newborn rats characterized by a high oleate:linoleate (O/L) ratio (1.5 to 5.0), and of a typical “adult” CEFA pattern in the mother characterized by an O/L ratio of less than unity (0.2 to 0.6). These characteristic “adult” and “fetal” CEFA patterns were found to be maintained in spite of moderate alterations in the fatty acid composition of the prenatal diets, but could not be maintained in the face of the exaggerated imbalance of diets supplying only single fatty acids. Based on the data obtained, it was postulated that homeostatic mechanisms exist which function so as to maintain the characteristic adult and fetal CEFA patterns in the face of stresses consisting of variations in the dietary fatty acid composition.