Essential fatty acid deficiency during pregnancy in the rat: influence of dietary carbohydrates.

We investigated the role of gestation in the development of essential fatty acids (EFA) deficiency by comparing four groups of nonpregnant rats and four groups of pregnant rats fed either glucose or sucrose as carbohydrate source (61.5% kJ) and either corn oil (EFA) or hydrogenated coconut oil [saturated fat (SF)] as fat source (5% kJ). Pregnancy was a crucial period for the onset of EFA deficiency in sucrose-fed rats. The arachidonic acid content of plasma lipids and liver microsomes was lower in SF-sucrose pregnant rats than in SF-sucrose nonpregnant rats. The liver microsome delta 6- and delta 5-desaturase activities were higher in sucrose pregnant rats than in sucrose nonpregnant rats. In glucose-fed rats the EFA deficiency was less severe. delta 6- and delta 5-desaturase activities were higher in SF-glucose rats than in EFA-glucose rats, except for delta 5-desaturase of the pregnant rats, in which activity was high in both glucose-fed groups. This might explain the effect of glucose in preventing the onset of EFA-deficiency in pregnant rats fed an SF diet.