Table 2.

Plasma PL fatty acid composition and estimated desaturase activity of the study participants.^a,b

	Baseline			Follow-up
	Control (n = 56)	Obese (n = 75)	p0	Control (n = 33)	Intermediate (n = 25)	Obese (n = 46)	p1
Total SFA	63.5 ± 5.8	63.4 ± 7.5††	0.776	63.5 ± 9.7	60.6 ± 10.3	61.8 ± 9.2	0.515
c12:0	0.14 ± 0.08	0.13 ± 0.06	0.443	0.12 ± 0.06	0.14 ± 0.06	0.11 ± 0.05	0.666
c14:0	0.54 ± 0.14	0.51 ± 0.11	0.385	0.54 ± 0.22	0.52 ± 0.08	0.50 ± 0.14	0.435
c16:0	38.9 ± 3.7	38.1 ± 4.8	0.213	39.2 ± 6.4	36.9 ± 6.5	37.3 ± 6.2	0.217
c18:0	21.2 ± 2.3	21.7 ± 2.8	0.341	20.7 ± 3.3	20.2 ± 3.6	20.9 ± 2.9	0.620
c20:0	0.51 ± 0.16	0.53 ± 0.15	0.321	0.55 ± 0.10	0.52 ± 0.12	0.55 ± 0.11	0.941
c22:0	1.17 ± 0.49*	1.28 ± 0.45	0.163	1.26 ± 0.24	1.23 ± 0.23	1.33 ± 0.31	0.238
c24:0	1.05 ± 0.41	1.10 ± 0.38	0.371	1.12 ± 0.27	1.05 ± 0.24	1.07 ± 0.27	0.413
Total MUFA	11.0 ± 1.6	11.0 ± 1.6†	0.889	11.3 ± 1.0	11.1 ± 1.2	11.1 ± 1.1	0.545
c16:1n-7	0.43 ± 0.18	0.51 ± 0.20	0.018	0.36 ± 0.15	0.44 ± 0.18	0.44 ± 0.15	0.027
c18:1n-9	6.89 ± 1.46	6.79 ± 1.55	0.589	6.23 ± 1.68	6.68 ± 2.06	6.62 ± 1.48	0.278
c18:1n-7	1.25 ± 0.23	1.16 ± 0.21	0.039	1.20 ± 0.28	1.12 ± 0.20	1.13 ± 0.26	0.283
c20:1n-9	0.32 ± 0.26*	0.32 ± 0.32	0.446	0.62 ± 0.62	0.50 ± 0.59	0.43 ± 0.45	0.197
c22:1n-9	0.71 ± 0.42	0.69 ± 0.49	0.306	1.31 ± 1.08	0.89 ± 0.99	0.92 ± 0.84	0.271
c24:1n-9	1.40 ± 0.57	1.50 ± 0.57	0.248	1.52 ± 0.46	1.47 ± 0.38	1.57 ± 0.43	0.522
Total n-6 FA	21.7 ± 4.3***	21.8 ± 5.7†††	0.752	21.2 ± 8.0	24.1 ± 8.1	22.7 ± 7.5	0.428
c18:2n-6	14.2 ± 2.9	13.7 ± 3.2	0.285	14.0 ± 4.9	15.4 ± 4.8	14.4 ± 4.1	0.690
c18:3n-6	0.40 ± 0.13	0.39 ± 0.14	0.497	0.45 ± 0.18	0.37 ± 0.11	0.39 ± 0.11	0.153
c20:2n-6	0.29 ± 0.18	0.28 ± 0.12	0.993	0.29 ± 0.13	0.30 ± 0.14	0.29 ± 0.12	0.864
c20:3n-6	2.08 ± 0.48	2.38 ± 0.61	0.008	2.00 ± 0.53	2.28 ± 0.71	2.39 ± 0.55	0.007
c20:4n-6	4.44 ± 1.74*	4.74 ± 2.30	0.891	3.96 ± 3.11	5.22 ± 3.21	4.84 ± 3.24	0.255
c22:4n-6	0.18 ± 0.09	0.21 ± 0.09	0.108	0.24 ± 0.27	0.24 ± 0.11	0.21 ± 0.12	0.894
Total n-3 FA	3.72 ± 1.27	3.82 ± 1.19†††	0.632	3.72 ± 1.30	3.80 ± 1.15	3.80 ± 1.23	0.367
c18:3n-3	0.11 ± 0.07	0.13 ± 0.07	0.109	0.13 ± 0.09	0.14 ± 0.08	0.14 ± 0.11	0.955
c20:3n-3	1.15 ± 0.70	0.96 ± 0.63	0.319	1.26 ± 0.66	0.92 ± 0.64	1.17 ± 0.70	0.569
c20:5n-3	0.37 ± 0.33	0.42 ± 0.30	0.340	0.42 ± 0.45	0.53 ± 0.37	0.45 ± 0.35	0.663
c22:5n-3	0.58 ± 0.34*	0.59 ± 0.30†††	0.709	0.76 ± 0.37	0.72 ± 0.28	0.77 ± 0.29	0.532
c22:6n-3	1.51 ± 1.03	1.71 ± 1.14	0.453	1.54 ± 1.46	1.95 ± 1.42	1.89 ± 1.70	0.591
Desaturase activity
D6D	0.15 ± 0.04	0.18 ± 0.04	<0.0001	0.15 ± 0.04	0.16 ± 0.04	0.18 ± 0.05	0.029
D5D	2.15 ± 0.78	1.95 ± 0.80	0.075	1.85 ± 1.38	2.10 ± 1.13	1.94 ± 1.26	0.590
SCD-16	0.011 ± 0.005	0.013 ± 0.006	0.016	0.009 ± 0.004	0.012 ± 0.006	0.012 ± 0.004	0.031
SCD-18	0.334 ± 0.100	0.323 ± 0.099	0.462	0.319 ± 0.126	0.354 ± 0.154	0.328 ± 0.103	0.572

All values are presented as mean ± standard deviation (SD).

* Baseline vs. follow-up in control; *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001.

^† Baseline vs. follow-up in obese; ^†p < 0.05; ^††p < 0.01; ^†††p < 0.001.

D5D = delta-5D; D6D = delta-6D; FA = fatty acid; MUFA = monounsaturated fatty acid; PL = phospholipid; SCD = stearyl-CoAD; SFA = saturated fatty acid.

^aData are log transformed prior to analysis.

^bTested by unpaired Student t test (p₀, *, †) or one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA; p₁ = p value for linear trends).