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Possible essentiality of docosahexaenoic acid in Japanese monkey neonates: Occurrence in colostrum and low biosynthetic capacity in neonate brains
Author(s) -
Kanazawa Ayako,
Miyazawa Teruo,
Hirono Haruko,
Yayashi Motoharu,
Fujimoto Kenshiro
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
lipids
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.601
H-Index - 120
eISSN - 1558-9307
pISSN - 0024-4201
DOI - 10.1007/bf02544024
Subject(s) - docosahexaenoic acid , colostrum , lipidology , clinical chemistry , biology , food science , biochemistry , chemistry , fatty acid , polyunsaturated fatty acid , immunology , antibody
The importance of mother's milk as a source of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in Japanese monkey neonates was investigated. The DHA content in monkey colostrum total lipids was 2.2%, similar to or slightly higher than in humans. A comparison of the biosynthetic capacity of brain microsomes from monkeys of different age (up to 10 years) showed that chain elongation/desaturation of linolenic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid in neonates was significantly less pronounced than in adults. In particular, the formation of DHA, which is the product of Δ4 desaturase, was negligible. These results suggest that milk is an important source of DHA in Japanese monkey neonates.