Table 3.

Hepatic fatty acid profiles (%) of 20-day-old rat fetuses exposed to a maternal high fat diet.

Fatty Acid	Control	HF1	HF2	HF3	HFG
Saturated
14:0	1.03 ± 0.20	0.93 ± 0.09	1.00 ± 0.07	1.39 ± 0.16	1.22 ± 0.15
16:0	24.46 ± 0.92	23.15 ± 0.43	23.62 ± 0.59	24.20 ± 0.90	23.75 ± 0.50
18:0	15.40 ± 0.40	15.57 ± 0.37	14.85 ± 0.17	15.20 ± 0.43	14.55 ± 0.21
20:0	0.31 ± 0.05	0.30 ± 0.04	0.26 ± 0.01	0.28 ± 0.02	0.32 ± 0.04
Monounsaturated
15:1	0.49 ± 0.05	0.33 ± 0.09	0.34 ± 0.07	0.36 ± 0.06	0.36 ± 0.06
16:1 (n-7)	4.20 ± 0.37	3.82 ± 0.31	3.93 ± 0.13	3.43 ± 0.23	4.03 ± 0.11
18:1 (n-9)	21.01 ± 0.70	20.09 ± 0.77	21.35 ± 0.79	19.03 ± 1.31	22.44 ± 0.67
20:1 (n-9)	0.21 ± 0.07	0.24 ± 0.03	0.24 ± 0.01	0.23 ± 0.03	0.23 ± 0.03
Omega-3
20:5 (n-3)	0.83 ± 0.10	0.70 ± 0.08	0.57 ± 0.03	0.65 ± 0.09	0.69 ± 0.10
22:5 (n-3)	0.40 ± 0.03	0.37 ± 0.06	0.34 ± 0.03	0.41 ± 0.04	0.24 ± 0.01 *,§
22:6 (n-3)	12.64 ± 0.91	13.00 ± 0.96	12.01 ± 0.56	9.99 ± 1.21	8.81 ± 0.51
Omega-6
18:2 (n-6)	7.24 ± 0.30	7.86 ± 0.53	8.06 ± 0.25	10.16 ± 0.79 *,‡	8.79 ± 0.30
20:2 (n-6)	0.22 ± 0.03	0.25 ± 0.05	0.24 ± 0.02	0.25 ± 0.01	0.23 ± 0.02
20:3 (n-6)	0.83 ± 0.03	0.79 ± 0.03	0.87 ± 0.06	1.03 ± 0.03 †	0.99 ± 0.05
20:4 (n-6)	8.68 ± 0.33	10.53 ± 0.46	10.21 ± 0.26	10.95 ± 0.52*	10.65 ± 0.72
22:4 (n-6)	0.40 ± 0.01	0.43 ± 0.01	0.47 ± 0.02	0.50 ± 0.05	0.48 ± 0.04

The fetuses were maintained (through their mothers’ nutrition) on a high fat diet (HFD) for either the first week (HF1), second week (HF2), third week (HF3) or all 3 weeks (HFG) of fetal life. Values are means ± standard error of the means (SEM). n = 3–5 per group. Bonferroni’s test was used to determine differences between groups after one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). HF = high fat. Numerals refer to the week of maintenance on a high fat diet. * p < 0.05 vs. control, ^† p < 0.05 vs. HF1, ^‡ p < 0.05 vs. HF2, ^§ p < 0.05 vs. HF3.