Table 1.

Mg deficiency during pregnancy alters maternal and fetal hepatic fatty acid profiles.

	Maternal		Fetal
	Control	Mg deficient	Control	Mg deficient
FA (mg per 100 mg liver)
14:0	0.36 ± 0.22	0.74 ± 0.13**	1.75 ± 0.21	1.55 ± 0.19
16:0	30.2 ± 0.86	30.8 ± 2.55	27.8 ± 1.00	26.3 ± 0.58*
16:1	2.02 ± 0.34	3.63 ± 1.02**	5.21 ± 0.30	4.74 ± 0.68
18:0	4.46 ± 0.48	4.8 ± 0.82	7.89 ± 0.87	8.75 ± 0.94
18:1n-7	2.70 ± 0.25	3.01 ± 0.59	3.90 ± 0.23	3.37 ± 0.38*
18:1n-9	30.3 ± 2.54	34.7 ± 2.68**	38.1 ± 1.60	32.8 ± 2.48**
18:2n-6	24.2 ± 2.74	19.3 ± 4.96*	13.8 ± 1.90	19.4 ± 2.62***
18:3n-6	0.97 ± 0.18	0.48 ± 0.58*	0.36 ± 0.36	0.78 ± 0.35*
18:3n-3	0.54 ± 0.37	0.37 ± 0.99*	0.23 ± 0.34	0.87 ± 0.46*
20:4n-6	2.80 ± 0.57	1.24 ± 0.44***	0.26 ± 0.27	0.71 ± 0.33*
22:6n-3	1.41 ± 0.42	0.19 ± 0.33***	0.67 ± 0.05	0.93 ± 0.17*
Percentage of total
MUFA	37.0 ± 1.20	39.8 ± 3.06*	47.0 ± 1.80	40.1 ± 3.56**
SFA	33.0 ± 2.70	40.0 ± 3.20**	37.4 ± 1.80	37.1 ± 1.73
PUFA	30.0 ± 2.96	20.2 ± 6.07**	15.6 ± 2.67	22.8 ± 4.17**
Ratio
PUFA:SFA	0.86 ± 0.10	0.63 ± 0.23*	0.33 ± 0.16	0.61 ± 0.24**
n-3:n-6 FA	0.07 ± 0.01	0.06 ± 0.01*	0.06 ± 0.02	0.09 ± 0.01*
Activity
Desaturation indexa	1.00 ± 0.08	1.14 ± 0.09*	1.26 ± 0.07	1.12 ± 0.1*
ELOVL6b	1.15 ± 0.09	1.29 ± 0.06*	1.65 ± 0.04	1.58 ± 0.09

Values are means ± SD; n = 8–9 per group.

^aTotal desaturation index = (16:1n-7 + 18:1n-7 + 18:1n-9)/(14:0 + 16:0 + 18:0).

^bELOVL6 (elongase 6) activity index = (18:0 + 18:1n-9)/16:0.

^*P < 0.05,

^**P < 0.01,

^***P < 0.0001 versus control.