A combination of lipidomics, MS imaging, and PET scan imaging reveals differences in cerebral activity in rat pups according to the lipid quality of infant formulas

What is it about?

Breast milk is considered as the most suitable food to meet all the needs of the growing infant. However it is not always possible for the mother to breastfed, and properly designed infant formulas must be used. The neonate relies to some extent on the fatty acids provided in either breast milk or formulas, allowing synthesis of complex lipids forming the membranes of nervous cells and influencing brain function. Among these important fatty acids are the so-called DHA (an omega3 fatty acid), and ARA (an omega6 fatty acid). It is now advised to supplement formulas with these 2 fatty acids present in breast milk. But the consequences on brain function of adding such fatty acids to mimic breast milk must be checked. To do this, we administrated formulas containing or not DHA & ARA to artificially reared rat pups until weaning. We measured the brain functional activity in vivo by PET scan imaging, and determined how such supplementation can modified the lipid chemistry of the brain and of the eye, an organ also very sensitive to dietary influence. We found that the supplementation normalized the brain functional activity to that of rat pups fed dam's milk. This was accompanied by specific changes induced at the brain (and eye) complex lipid chemistry levels. In conclusion, providing DHA+ARA in formulas alters the nervous tissues DHA content and lipid chemistry in the neonate to be closer to dam milk fed controls, and normalizes brain functional activity.

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