The content of total fatty acids in the serum of healthy children from the Zagreb area.

A study of the fatty acid content was performed by gas chromatography in the sera of 26 healthy children aged 3-13 years and in the sera of 7 children aged up to three years, both from the Zagreb area. The following parameters were calculated for each subject and each fatty acid individually: mmol/l, mol%, g/l, mass% and mean molecular mass. On the basis of the results, the values of the parameters for the whole group of subjects were calculated. The values of these parameters for some characteristic groups of fatty acids (saturated, unsaturated, monounsaturated and long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids) were also calculated and their interrelationship is presented. The ratio of fatty acids according to age groups (0-1, 1-3 and 3-13 years) is also shown. Fatty acids C 18:2, C 16:0 and C 18:1 with 32.87 mol%, 22.56 mol% and 20.79 mol%, respectively, were most frequently observed in the children's sera, which correlated well with the generally known data. Essential fatty acids were present in the following amounts: C 20:4, 5.49 mol%; C 22:5, 0.26 mol%; and C 22:6, 0.82 mol%. The sera of the children aged up to one year were found to contain significantly higher amounts of short-chain fatty acids and lower amounts of C 18:2 and C 20:4 than the sera from children older than one year.