Table 2.

The fatty acid composition of serum phospholipids of the rat offspring at 3 weeks of age from dams fed diets with different ratios of n-6 and n-3 fatty acids

Fatty acids (mol%)	Dietary groups
	n-3 (n = 8)		n-6/n-3 (n = 10)		n-6 (n = 10)
12:0	1·6;	0·8–3·0*	1·3;	0·8–1·9*	1·0;	0·7–2·7*
14:0	2·7;	2·3–3·7*	2·1;	1·7–2·6†	2·0;	1·4–3·2†
16:0	26·4;	25·0–35·0*	24·1;	23·0–26·4†	24·7;	23·0–27·2†
16:1(n-7)	0·22;	0·18–0·42*	0·15;	0·12–0·24†	0·13;	0·1–0·21†
18:0	19·6;	16·7–20·1*	19·4;	18·0–20·9*	20·1;	18·1–21·1*
18:1(n-9)	4·9;	4·0–5·9*	3·7;	2·9–4·4†	3·7;	3·0–4·7†
18:2(n-6)	23·3;	8·5–24·9*	28·1;	25·2–30·0†	28·6;	21·2–31·5†
18:3(n-6)	0·06;	0·05–0·2*	0·07;	0·05–0·16*	0·12;	0·07–0·2†
18:3(n-3)	3·0;	1·4–5·1*	0·42;	0·2–0·6†	0·04;	0·02–0·05 ‡
20:2(n-6)	0·20;	0·16–0·22*	0·47;	0·4–0·52†	0·38;	0·32–0·46†
20:3(n-6)	0·53;	0·48–0·58*	0·4;	0·3–0·5†	0·42;	0·31–0·6†
20:4(n-6)	6·8;	5·8–11·9*	13·4;	11·9–14·5†	13·9;	12·7–17·8†
24:1(n-9)	0·6;	0·4–2·1*	0·4;	0·4–0·51†	0·4;	0·35–0·51†
20:5(n-3)	3·5;	0·8–4·5*	0·09;	0·06–0·1†	0·02;	0·01–0·04 ‡
22:6(n-3)	5·2;	4·1–10·8*	4·6;	3·9–5·1*	2·5;	1·9–3·8†
20:3(n-6)/20:4(n-6)	0·08;	0·04–0·09*	0·03;	0·02–0·04†	0·03;	0·02–0·05†
n-6	31·0;	21·4–33·4*	42·4;	40·6–42·9†	44·0;	39·8–45·2†
n-3	12·2;	10·4–13·2*	5·1;	4·4–5·6†	2·6;	1·9–3·7 ‡
n-6/n-3	2·5;	1·7–3·2*	8·2	7·3–9·6†;	16·9	10·6–23·5 ‡
Saturated FA	51·3;	50·7–57·2*	48·3;	47·1–49·7†	49·3;	47·6–52·2†
Monounsaturated FA	10·4;	8·7–14·0*	7·9;	6·2–9·1†	7·9;	6·3–9·9†
Polyunsaturated FA	43·1;	34·3–43·8*	47·5;	46·4–48·1†	46·7;	43·6–47·3†

Values are median; range.

^*Different symbols indicate significant differences between dietary groups (P < 0·05) (multiple comparison with Kruskal–Wallis and Dunn's tests).

^†Different symbols indicate significant differences between dietary groups (P < 0·05) (multiple comparison with Kruskal–Wallis and Dunn's tests).

^‡Different symbols indicate significant differences between dietary groups (P < 0·05) (multiple comparison with Kruskal–Wallis and Dunn's tests).