Sala-Vila Aleix, Castellote Ana I, López-Sabater M Carmen
Department of Nutrition and Food Science, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Barcelona, Avda Joan XXIII s/n, E-08028 Barcelona, Spain.
Nutr Res. 2008 Mar;28(3):131-6. doi: 10.1016/j.nutres.2007.11.007.
Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) plays an important role in normal development of the brain and retina in the human. In utero, DHA is incorporated in the fetus, and its accretion continues throughout early postnatal life. Although human breast milk contains this fatty acid, several organizations recommend supplementing infant formulas with DHA for infants and premature infants. Traditionally, certain types of fish oil have been used for fortifying some infant formulas, but with the decline in world fisheries, the search for alternative sources of DHA continues. Among the viable ingredient sources of DHA is oil derived from single-cell organisms (marine microorganisms); however, these oil sources display different positional specificity of DHA in the glycerol lipids compared with that found in human breast milk lipids. In the latter, the DHA is mainly esterified in the central position of the glycerol backbone. Because of these differences in human milk and oils derived from single-cell organisms, recent research in biotechnology has focused on developing new structured triacylglycerols with an intramolecular structure resembling that found in human milk lipids. This research is justified by the potential differences in metabolism of DHA based on the hypothetical bioavailability and benefits in DHA found in human milk lipids. Presented herein is a review of the published research on the metabolism of DHA from different triacylglycerol sources including in vitro studies and animal studies. Despite small differences observed in digestion, the current data reveal a minimal effect on the parameters of development studied for the intramolecular position in which DHA is esterified.
二十二碳六烯酸（DHA）在人类大脑和视网膜的正常发育中起着重要作用。在子宫内，DHA会被整合到胎儿体内，并且在出生后的早期阶段其积累仍会持续。尽管母乳中含有这种脂肪酸，但多个组织建议在婴儿配方奶粉中添加DHA，供婴儿和早产儿食用。传统上，某些类型的鱼油被用于强化一些婴儿配方奶粉，但随着世界渔业资源的减少，人们仍在继续寻找DHA的替代来源。单细胞生物（海洋微生物）来源的油脂是可行的DHA成分来源之一；然而，与母乳脂质相比，这些油脂来源的DHA在甘油脂质中的位置特异性不同。在母乳中，DHA主要酯化在甘油主链的中心位置。由于母乳和单细胞生物来源的油脂存在这些差异，生物技术领域的最新研究集中在开发具有类似于母乳脂质分子内结构的新型结构化三酰甘油。基于母乳脂质中DHA的假设生物利用度和益处，DHA代谢可能存在差异，这证明了这项研究的合理性。本文对已发表的关于不同三酰甘油来源的DHA代谢的研究进行了综述，包括体外研究和动物研究。尽管在消化过程中观察到了一些细微差异，但目前的数据表明，DHA酯化的分子内位置对所研究的发育参数影响极小。
