Dietary phospholipids rich in long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids improve the repair of small intestine in previously malnourished piglets.

Malnourished piglets were studied to establish how a diet containing long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFA) of the (n-6) and (n-3) series, esterified in the form of phospholipids, affects intestinal recovery after severe malnutrition. Piglets (7-d-old) were randomly assigned to two groups. One group was fed a piglet milk formula and the other was malnourished by protein-energy restriction for 30 d. Healthy and malnourished piglets were then divided into two subgroups fed for 10 d either an adapted milk formula (C and M) or the same diet supplemented with LC-PUFA phospholipids (C-P and M-P). The M-P group had greater protein, DNA, cholesterol and phospholipid levels and a lower triglyceride level in the jejunal segment than did the M group. The fatty acid composition of the jejunal mucosa and microsomes of the M-P piglets did not differ from that of healthy piglets (C). However, in jejunal mucosa, microsomes and phospholipids from malnourished piglets that did not receive LC-PUFA (group M) had significantly lower percentages of (n-6) LC-PUFA than those in healthy piglets (C). The (n-3) LC-PUFA percentages of jejunal mucosa were also lower in the M group than in the C group. The small intestine of piglets fed the LC-PUFA-supplemented formula recovered more completely from histologic lesions and biochemical alterations caused by the malnutrition process than the small intestine of piglets fed the control formula without LC-PUFA.