TABLE 5.

Spearman's rank correlation coefficients of associations between EPA plus DHA (percentage of total FAs) in different sample types at 12 mo¹

	Plasma CEs	Plasma NEFAs	Plasma TAG	MNCs	RBCs	PLATs	BUs	AT
Plasma PC	0.843	0.610	0.768	0.736	0.514	0.826	0.459	0.419
Plasma CEs		0.607	0.707	0.753	0.475	0.819	0.491	0.354
Plasma NEFAs			0.577	0.599	0.225	0.567	0.325	0.196
Plasma TAGs				0.720	0.409	0.803	0.498	0.328
MNCs					0.523	0.891	0.442	0.385
RBCs						0.596	0.286	0.365
PLATs							0.494	0.469
BUs								0.271

¹n = 30 (0-portions group), n = 35 (1-portion group), n = 30 (2-portions group), and n = 33 (4-portions group). A correlation >0.15 was significant by using Fisher's z′-transformation to test the null hypothesis that there was no correlation; therefore all correlations were significant (P < 0.05). AT, adipose tissue; BUs, buccal cells; CEs, cholesteryl esters; FAs, fatty acids; MNCs, blood mononuclear cells; NEFAs, nonesterified fatty acids; PC, phosphatidylcholine; PLATs, platelets; RBCs, erythrocytes (red blood cells); TAGs, triglycerides.