Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 21, 2026

Dietary Supplementation of Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in Caenorhabditis elegans
Published on: November 29, 2013
Serum Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in Middle Childhood and Body Mass Index Change Through Adolescence
Kerry S Flannagan1, Sheila Gahagan2, Arun K Das3
1Department of Epidemiology, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
Background:
Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) status in childhood may be associated with adiposity development.
Objective:
To assess associations of serum PUFA biomarkers in childhood with change in body mass index (BMI)-for-age Z scores (BMIZ) through adolescence.
Methods:
We quantified serum PUFA at ages 5 and 10 years among 418 children from Santiago, Chile. BMI was measured at 5, 10, and 16 years. We compared BMIZ change through age 16 years between quartiles of PUFA at 5 and 10 years and PUFA change 5-10 years by fitting growth curves from mixed effects models.
Results:
At age 5 years, serum docosahexaenoic acid was inversely associated with BMIZ change from ages 5 to 16 years. At age 10 years, arachidonic acid (AA) was nonlinearly positively related to BMIZ change from ages 10 to 16 years. Change in AA and the Δ5-desaturase (D5D) activity index between 5 and 10 years were each positively associated with BMIZ change from ages 10 to 16 years. Change in eicosapentaenoic acid was inversely associated with change in BMIZ.
Conclusions:
Serum long-chain n-3 PUFA in middle childhood were associated with less BMI gain through adolescence, whereas AA and D5D activity was related to greater BMI gain.
Related Concept Videos
Overview of Fatty Acid Metabolism
Fatty acids are catabolized in a process called beta-oxidation, which takes place in the matrix of the mitochondria and converts their fatty acid chains into two-carbon units of acetyl groups. The acetyl...
Reduced Mass Coordinates: Isolated Two-body Problem
NMR and Mass Spectroscopy of Carboxylic Acids
While α protons of carboxylic acids absorb at 2–2.5 ppm, β protons absorb further upfield.
Carboxylic acids are easily identified by dissolving them in deuterium oxide, which results in a rapid exchange of the acidic protons with deuterium. This leads to the...
Cognitive Development During Adolescence
Mass Spectrometry: Carboxylic Acid, Ester, and Amide Fragmentation
For example, the...
Global Climate Change

