DHA turnover in pregnant women using the natural abundance variation of 13C: a pilot study

The importance of DHA to support fetal development and maternal health is well established. In this study, we applied the natural abundance approach to determine the contribution of 200 mg/d of DHA supplement to the plasma DHA pool in nineteen healthy pregnant women. Women received DHA, from week 20 until delivery, from an algal source (n 13, Algae group) or from fish oil (n 6, Fish group) with slightly different content of C-13. We measured plasma phospholipids DHA C-13:C-12 ratio (reported as delta C-13) prior to supplementation (T0), after 10 (T1) and 90 days (T2) and prior to delivery (T3). The delta C-13 of DHA in algae and fish supplements were -15 center dot 8 (sd 0 center dot 2) mUr and -25 center dot 3 (sd 0 center dot 2) mUr (P < 0 center dot 001). DHA delta C-13 in the Algae group increased from -27 center dot 7 (sd 1 center dot 6) mUr (T0) to -21 center dot 9 (sd 2 center dot 2) mUr (T3) (P < 0 center dot 001), whereas there were not significant changes in the Fish group (-27 center dot 8 (sd 0 center dot 9) mUr at T0 and -27 center dot 3 (sd 1 center dot 1) mUr at T3, P = 0 center dot 09). In the Algae group, 200 mg/d of DHA contributed to the plasma phospholipid pool by a median value of 53 % (31-75 % minimum and maximum). This estimation was not possible in the Fish group. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of assessing the contribution of DHA from an algal source to the plasma DHA pool in pregnant women by the natural abundance approach. Plasma delta C-13 DHA did not change when consuming DHA of fish origin, with almost the same delta C-13 value of that of the pre-supplementation plasma delta C-13 DHA.