Effects of dietary phospholipids and odd-chain fatty acids on the behavioural maturation of mice.

Five groups of female mice were fed from day 14 of pregnancy and throughout lactation on synthetic diets differing only in the lipid component, which constituted 10% of the diet and was derived from (a) the lipid fraction extracted from yeast grown on n-alkanes, (b) commercial soya lecithin, (c) fatty acids isolated from yeast lipids (off-chain fatty acids), (d) lipids extracted from yeast grown on glucose or (e) margarine (8%), corn oil (1%) and the unsaponifiable fraction (1%) from yeast grown on n-alkanes. A control diet (9% margarine and 1% corn oil) was fed to a sixth group of pregnant mice and to the offspring of all the groups from weaning to 60 days after birth. A battery of behavioural tests was performed on the offspring of the six groups between days 1 and 16 after birth (reflex activities), between days 2 and 21 (locomotor activity) and at 60 days of age (avoidance learning). An acceleration of postnatal behavioural maturation was evident in the pups of animals fed lipids from yeast grown on n-alkanes and of those fed soya lecithin, indicating the involvement of phospholipids and odd-chain fatty acids in the aspects of development studied.