Effects of dietary fish oil on intestinal adaptation in 20-day-old weanling rats after massive ileocecal resection.

Long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFA)seem to be the most trophic macronutrients in inducing intestinal adaptation in adult short bowel syndrome (SBS), although their effects on intestinal adaptation in infants with SBS remain unknown.It is hypothesized that a high fat diet enriched with n-3 LCPUFA derived from fish oil (FO) will increase intestinal adaptation compared with a diet dominated by n-6 PUFA from corn oil (CO) in weanling SBS rats after massive ileocecal resection (ICR). Twenty-day-old rats were sorted into four groups, CO-sham, FO-sham,CO-ICR, and FO-ICR groups, and fed ad lib with the CO or FO diet, respectively, for 7 d after sham or ICR surgery. Compared with CO-ICR rats, FO-ICR rats consumed less diet per gram of weight gain, had less diarrhea and fecal fat excretion, and demonstrated a tendency toward better weight gain. The mucosal mass, DNA and RNA levels of the colon and RNA levels of the distal jejunum, and the colonic mucosal area (%) were significantly higher in FO-ICR rats than in CO-ICR rats. These results suggest that the beneficial effect of dietary FO is associated with better adaptation in the colon in weanling rats after ICR.