Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes and Essential Fatty Acids journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/plefa Original research article Influence of iron-deficient diets during gestation and lactation on cerebral fatty acids and eicosanoids in guinea pig offspring—Comparison of studies with different sources of dietary lipids Jean-Luc Jougleux a , France M. Rioux b , Sylvain Fiset c , Luc H. Boudreau a , Marc E. Surette a, ⁎ a Département de Chimie et Biochimie, Université de Moncton, 18 Antonine-Maillet Avenue, Moncton, NB, E1A 3E9, Canada b École des sciences de la Nutrition, Faculté des Sciences de la Santé, Université d'Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, K1N 6N5, Canada c Secteur Administration et Sciences Humaines, Université de Moncton, Campus Edmundston, Edmundston, NB, E3V 2S8, Canada ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Brain phospholipids Cyclooxygenase II Delta-6 desaturase Gestational iron deficiency anæmia Prostaglandins Long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids ABSTRACT Previous studies showed that mild iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) induced by feeding an iron deficient (ID) diet to female guinea pigs during gestation and lactation to alters the auditory functions of the offspring when corn oil is the only source of dietary lipids. Conversely, feeding an ID diet with a dietary fatty acid composition similar to that of typical human western diets induced minor impairments. Since tissue fatty acid metabolism is affected by dietary iron, the current study measured the impacts of these ID diets (ID-corn and ID-west) compared to the corresponding iron-sufficient control diets (IS-corn and IS-west) on encephalum fatty acid metabolism in the offspring at post-natal day 24. IDA induced by the ID-corn diet resulted in significant increases in encephalum n- 6 PUFA content, but IDA induced by the ID-west diet had little impact on fatty acid profiles compared to the IS- west group. Brain COX II protein expression and FADS2 mRNA expression were statistically unaffected in both experiments, but encephalum PGE 2 concentrations were significantly reduced in ID-west pups. These results suggest IDA studies during prenatal development should consider dietary lipid compositions. 1. Introduction The developmental and health consequences of iron deficiency anaemia (IDA), the most common worldwide nutrient disorder, are not yet completely elucidated. Pregnant women and their foetuses are particularly vulnerable when dietary iron intake does not meet in- creased requirements in response to this strong anabolic period. IDA during pregnancy is estimated to affect 56% and 18% of women in developing and industrialized countries, respectively [1]. Previous studies investigating dietary iron deprivation have identi- fied links to lipid metabolism. Notably, in humans and in rodents, pre- and post-natal ID affects fatty acid (FA) metabolism that is often ac- companied by altered neurological function [2–12]. However, incon- sistent results in these different studies have been reported and this is likely due to dissimilarities between studies in the degree of severity of ID/IDA, diet compositions, animal models, the time windows of ana- lyses (i.e., before or after weaning) or in the tissues that are analysed including the areas of the brain. Of interest, FA metabolism is affected by dietary iron fortification in school children [6] and by dietary iron deficiency in animal models [7]. Alterations in FA metabolism after gestational iron restriction are re- flected in the fatty acid composition of plasma, erythrocytes and he- patic and cerebral tissues [6,7,9,10]. Kwik-Uribe et al. demonstrated that the content of the long chain PUFA (LC-PUFA), arachidonic acid (AA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), are reduced and saturated fatty acids (SFA) increased in brain myelin of rodents pups when ID is in- duced during the gestational and postnatal period, whereas SFA and PUFA are similar to control animals when iron replenishment occurs after weaning [11]. In fact, fatty acid desaturase 2 (FADS2, or Δ6-de- saturase) requires iron as a cofactor to convert essential fatty acids (EFA) to LC-PUFA and it has been postulated that its activity might be impaired by ID [12] based on the conversion indices of EFA to LC- PUFA. Measures of desaturase expression and/or activity during IDA are scarce [13], and inexistent in the brain. Conversely, ID induced https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plefa.2019.08.001 Received 15 May 2019; Received in revised form 26 July 2019; Accepted 7 August 2019 Abbreviations: AA, arachidonic acid; COX II, cyclooxygenase II; DHA, docosahexaenoic acid; EFA, essential fatty acids; EPA, eicosapentaenoic acid; FA, fatty acid; FADS2, fatty acid desaturase 2; Gd, gestational day; Hb, haemoglobin; Hct, haematocrit; ID, iron deficient; IDA, iron deficiency anæmia; IS, iron sufficient; LC-PUFA, long chain polyunsaturated fatty acid; MUFA, monounsaturated fatty acid; PC, phosphatidylcholine; PE, phosphatidylethanolamine; PG, prostaglandin; PI, phos- phatidylinositol; PS, phosphatidylserine; PNd, postnatal day; SFA, saturated fatty acid ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: marc.surette@umoncton.ca (M.E. Surette). Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes and Essential Fatty Acids 149 (2019) 37–45 0952-3278/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T