Table 2.

Fatty acid composition of maternal breast milk measured at 14 days after delivery in the group supplemented in DHA (S-DHA) and in the placebo group.

Fatty acid composition expressed as % of total fatty acids	Mean ± SD		P-valuea
	S-DHA (n = 196)	Placebo (n = 193)
Cis-9 16:1b	1.87 ± 0.64	2.01 ± 0.65	*
Cis-11 18:1b	1.89 ± 0.40	1.99 ± 0.40	**
Trans-9 18:1b	0.14 ± 0.11	0.12 ± 0.09	0.26
Trans-11 18:1b	0.25 ± 0.18	0.21 ± 0.14	*
n-6 fatty acids
18:2 n-6 (LA)	12.6 ± 2.72	13.0 ± 2.70	0.15
18:3 n-6	0.08 ± 0.06	0.08 ± 0.06	0.90
20:2 n-6	0.43 ± 0.10	0.45 ± 0.09	*
20:3 n-6	0.51 ± 0.16	0.52 ± 0.17	0.37
20:4 n-6 (AA)	0.57 ± 0.14	0.57 ± 0.16	0.96
22:2 n-6	0.06 ± 0.03	0.06 ± 0.03	0.13
22:4 n-6	0.14 ± 0.05	0.15 ± 0.06	0.20
22:5 n-6 (n-6 DPA)	0.27 ± 0.14	0.04 ± 0.04	***
n-3 fatty acids
18:3 n-3 (ALA)	1.51 ± 0.50	1.53 ± 0.52	0.77
18:4 n-3	0.10 ± 0.05	0.10 ± 0.05	0.99
20:3 n-3	0.09 ± 0.06	0.09 ± 0.04	0.76
20:4 n-3	0.15 ± 0.07	0.14 ± 0.08	0.31
20:5 n-3 (EPA)	0.08 ± 0.05	0.07 ± 0.07	***
22:5 n-3 (n-3 DPA)	0.16 ± 0.05	0.17 ± 0.06	*
22:6 n-3 (DHA)	0.95 ± 0.44	0.34 ± 0.20	***
Ratio
DHA:n-6 DPA	3.80 ± 1.06	7.14 ± 3.56	***
DHA:AA	1.76 ± 1.55	0.60 ± 0.31	***
n-3:n-6	0.21 ± 0.06	0.17 ± 0.04	***
Trans-11 18:1 / cis-11 18:1	0.14 ± 0.11	0.11 ± 0.08	**
Sum
∑Saturated	44.8 ± 5.74	44.4 ± 6.21	0.43
∑MUFA	37.4 ± 4.51	38.2 ± 4.97	*
∑PUFA n-6	14.6 ± 2.84	14.8 ± 2.80	0.42
∑PUFA n-3	3.04 ± 0.76	2.45 ± 0.71	***
∑Cis fatty acids	54.4 ± 5.84	54.9 ± 6.24	0.40
∑Trans fatty acids	0.47 ± 0.29	0.42 ± 0.21	0.14

LA linoleic acid, ALA alpha-linolenic acid, AA arachidonic acid, DPA docosapentaenoic acid, EPA eicosapentaenoic acid, DHA docosahexaenoic acid, MUFA monounsaturated fatty acid, PUFA polyunsaturated fatty acid.

^aEstimated by the Mann–Whitney–Wilcoxon test. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.0001.

^bFor these FA, a nomenclature of the cis/trans type instead of the n nomenclature was chosen to discuss the results.