Maternal essential fatty acid supplementation increases zinc absorption in neonatal rats: relevance to the defect in zinc absorption in acrodermatitis enteropathica.

Pregnant zinc deficient and zinc adequate rats were injected subcutaneously with evening primrose oil throughout gestation and for 3 days post partum. The nursing pups were injected intragastrically with zinc-65 on day 3 of live and sacrifices 4 h later. The % of the total injected zinc recovered in the carcass (minus the gut and gut contents) was significantly increased in those pups nursed by mothers injected with evening primrose oil, regardless of their dietary zinc intake. The fatty acid composition of the total lipid extract of the gut and gut contents of the neonates with increased zinc-65 absorption indicated that these pups had higher proportions of arachidonic acid and other metabolites of linoleic acid than did those with lower zinc-65 absorption. In other 3-day-old rat pups, intragastric injection of linoleic, gamma-linolenic or dihomo-gamma-linolenic acids along with the dose of zinc-65 very significantly increased zinc-65 absorption in a dose-related manner. Arachidonic acid however had no significant effect on zinc-65 absorption. Prostaglandin E1 caused a significant increase in zinc-65 absorption but prostaglandin E2 had no consistent effect. Indomethacin caused a dose-related inhibition of zinc-65 absorption.