Table 4.

Fatty acid composition of total erythrocyte membrane lipids at baseline and 3 months^a)

Fatty acid	Time	Fish (n = 12) Mean ± SD	Capsules (n = 13) Mean ± SD
C14:0	0	0.38 ± 0.13	0.39 ± 0.11
	3	0.33 ± 0.07	0.39 ± 0.14
C16:0	0	24.47 ± 1.59	24.28 ± 2.16
	3	23.56 ± 1.56	23.80 ± 2.59
C16:1n7	0	0.71 ± 0.29	0.62 ± 0.18
	3	0.58 ± 0.22	0.65 ± 0.30
C18:0	0	19.88 ± 1.37	19.75 ± 1.32
	3	19.51 ± 1.07	19.39 ± 1.42
C18:1n9	0	12.99 ± 0.76	12.81 ± 0.98
	3	13.31 ± 1.11	12.96 ± 0.98
LA	0	13.24 ± 1.90	13.76 ± 2.44
	3	13.85 ± 2.18	13.61 ± 1.81
C18:3n3	0	0.19 ± 0.07	0.34 ± 0.44
	3	0.18 ± 0.06	0.18 ± 0.07
C20:2n6	0	0.51 ± 0.35	0.45 ± 0.15
	3	0.41 ± 0.08	0.52 ± 0.40
C20:3n6	0	1.89 ± 0.46	1.81 ± 0.31
	3	1.76 ± 0.40	1.55 ± 0.29
AA	0	15.38 ± 1.35	15.75 ± 0.92
	3	14.43 ± 1.11	14.34 ± 2.07
EPAb)	0	0.59 ± 0.28	0.44 ± 0.15
	3	1.21 ± 0.53	1.71 ± 0.53
C22:4n6	0	3.30 ± 0.80	3.64 ±0.52
	3	2.50 ± 0.51	2.54 ± 0.63
C22:5n6	0	0.46 ± 0.16	0.46 ± 0.14
	3	0.33 ± 0.16	0.38 ± 0.16
C22:5n3b)	0	2.37 ± 0.42	2.36 ± 0.64
	3	2.56 ± 0.48	2.93 ± 0.23
DHAb)	0	3.64 ± 1.34	3.13 ± 0.77
	3	5.48 ± 1.44	5.03 ± 0.74
n3/n6b)’c)	0	0.20 ± 0.06	0.18 ± 0.03
	3	0.29 ± 0.09	0.30 ± 0.06

^a)Values are expressed as mean % of total fatty acids ± SD.

^b)3 month values are significantly higher than baseline,

p < 0.0001.

^c)The n-3/n-6 ratio represents the sum of [18:3n3, 20:5n3, 22:5n3, 22:6n3]/sum of [18:2n6, 20:2n6, 20:3n6, 20:4n6, 22:4n6, 22:5n6].