Fatty acid composition of white adipose tissue and breast milk of Mauritian and French mothers and erythrocyte phospholipids of their full-term breast-fed infants.

The fatty acid compositions of white adipose tissue, colostrum and mature milk triacylglycerols from Mauritian (n 13) and French (n 15) women were analysed and compared in order to highlight cultural differences in dietary intakes and their influence on milk fatty acid composition. Erythrocyte phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylcholine fatty acid compositions were also investigated in their term infants, breast-fed over a period of 6 weeks. Fatty acid composition (g/100 g) of all samples was determined by GLC and anthropometric measurements were assessed in the two populations at birth and on day 42. Comparisons of white adipose tissue fatty acid compositions demonstrated lower levels of saturated (23.64 (SE 1.54) v. 29.75 (SE 0.67), P < 0.01) and monounsaturated (39.44 (SE 1.27) v. 54.84 (SE 0.75), P < 0.001) fatty acids and higher levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-6 series: 32.47 (SE 1.31) v. 14.32 (SE 0.47), P < 0.001 and n-3 series: 2.87 (SE 0.49) v. 0.80 (SE 0.07), P < 0.01) in Mauritian than in French samples respectively. Accordingly, milk fat of the Mauritian women contained higher levels of parent essential fatty acids and their longer-chain derivatives than did milk fat from French women. Higher levels of parent essential fatty acids but lower levels of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids were found in erythrocyte phospholipids of Mauritian infants compared with French infants. Infants' erythrocyte arachidonate and docosahexaenoate contents did not correlate with any anthropometric variables at birth or at day 42, neither did they correlate with anthropometric variation over the study period. Our results suggest the lack of a simple relationship between the amount of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in human milk and their accretion in the erythrocyte phospholipids of breast-fed infants when provided concomitantly with high levels of both linoleic and alpha-linolenic acids in ratios which fall within recommended ranges.