Table 1.

Effects of diet and breeding treatments on the percentage of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6n-3), docosapentaenoic acid (DPA, 22:5n-6), and arachidonic acid (AA; 20:4n-6) in cortical phospholipids of female rats.

Group	DHA	DPA	AA
	(Percent of Total Fatty Acids)
Virgin – Normal DHA	14.3 ± 0.67	0.34 ± 0.023	11.3 ± 0.27
Virgin – Decreased DHA	10.8 ± 0.54*	1.8 ± 0.11*	10.8 ± 0.34
Parous – Normal DHA	14.6 ± 0.65†	0.45 ± 0.044†	11.7 ± 0.52
Parous – Decreased DHA	10.7 ± 0.64*†	2.4 ± 0.18*†‡	11.6 ± 0.25

Data are presented as the mean ± SEM (n = 8–9 per group) and are representative of those obtained from each of the four cohorts of rats used in these studies.

^*Different from Virgin – Normal DHA (P<0.01).

^†Different from Virgin-Decreased DHA (P<0.01).

^‡Different from Parous-Normal DHA (P<0.01).

Parous dams underwent two sequential reproductive cycles (gestation and nursing), beginning at P75–80. Virgin females with normal DHA were fed the control diet for 13 weeks, corresponding to two reproductive cycles, beginning at P75–80. Virgin females with decreased DHA were produced by feeding the deficient diet for 6 months, starting at P56–60, thus bracketing the treatment period for the other groups.