[Recent advances in the use of essential fatty acids in pediatrics within the limits of diet, prevention and therapy].

The authors review the origins and the metabolism of omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids and particularly consider the implications of desaturase's deficiency and of the usual imbalanced supply of fatty acids in the diet of children. The peculiarity of the fatty acids is to be, while proteins express the genome, the expression of the diet on the cell's membranes, with a subtle influence of an enzyme's equipment varying during the life. All that gains an extraordinary relief, because the omega-6 and omega-3, and constituents of the membranes, are precursors of different series of prostaglandins, which are wholebody mediators of multiple phenomenons like inflammation, immunity, allergy, platelet aggregation, ecc. The authors point how a balanced diet or a supplementation with omega-3, omega-6 and PUFA can help a good development especially of the nervous tissue and of the mucosal barrier. Furthermore modulating the above physiopathological mechanism, also in children could influence recurrent and chronic diseases.