Maternal DHA status during pregnancy has a positive impact on infant problem solving: A Norwegian prospective observation study

Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6, n-3) is a long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid necessary for normal brain growth and cognitive development. Seafood and dietary supplements are the primary dietary sources of DHA. This study addresses the associations between DHA status in pregnant women and healthy, term-born infant problem-solving skills assessed using the Ages and Stages Questionnaire. The fatty acid status of maternal red blood cells (RBCs) was assessed in the 28th week of gestation and at three months postpartum. The infants’ fatty acid status (RBC) was assessed at three, six, and twelve months, and problem-solving skills were assessed at six and twelve months. Maternal DHA status in pregnancy was found to be positively associated with infants’ problem-solving skills at 12 months. This association remained significant even after controlling for the level of maternal education, a surrogate for socio-economic status. The infants’ DHA status at three months was associated with the infants’ problem solving at 12 months. The results accentuate the importance for pregnant and lactating women to have a satisfactory DHA status from dietary intake of seafood or other sources rich in DHA

Low omega-3 index in pregnancy is a possible biological risk factor for postpartum depression.

Depression is a common disorder affecting 10-15% women in the postpartum period. Postpartum depression can disrupt early mother-infant interaction, and constitutes a risk factor for early child development. Recently, attention has been drawn to the hypothesis that a low intake of seafood in pregnancy can be a risk factor for postpartum depression. Seafood is a unique dietary source of the marine omega-3 fatty acids and is a natural part of a healthy balanced diet that is especially important during pregnancy.In a community based prospective cohort in a municipality in Western Norway, we investigated both nutritional and psychological risk factors for postpartum depression. The source population was all women who were pregnant within the period November 2009 - June 2011. The fatty acid status in red blood cells was assessed in the 28(th) gestation week and participants were screened for postpartum depression using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) three months after delivery. The aim of the present study was to investigate if a low omega-3 index in pregnancy is a possible risk factor for postpartum depression.In a simple regression model, the omega-3 index was associated with the EPDS score in a nonlinear inverse manner with an R square of 19. Thus, the low omega-3 index explained 19% of the variance in the EPDS score. The DPA content, DHA content, omega-3 index, omega-3/omega-6 ratio, total HUFA score, and the omega-3 HUFA score were all inversely correlated with the EPDS score. The EPDS scores of participants in the lowest omega-3 index quartile were significantly different to the three other omega-3 index quartiles.In this study population, a low omega-3 index in late pregnancy was associated with higher depression score three months postpartum

Early postpartum discharge: maternal depression, breastfeeding habits and different follow-up strategies

acceptedVersio

A Diet Score Assessing Norwegian Adolescents’ Adherence to Dietary Recommendations—Development and Test-Retest Reproducibility of the Score

Assessment of adolescents’ dietary habits is challenging. Reliable instruments to monitor dietary trends are required to promote healthier behaviours in this group. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to assess adolescents’ adherence to Norwegian dietary recommendations with a diet score and to report results from, and test-retest reliability of, the score. The diet score involved seven food groups and one physical activity indicator, and was applied to answers from a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) administered twice. Reproducibility of the score was assessed with Cohen’s Kappa (κ statistics) at an interval of three months. The setting was eight lower-secondary schools in Hordaland County, Norway, and subjects were adolescents (n = 472) aged 14–15 years and their caregivers. Results showed that the proportion of adolescents consistently classified by the diet score was 87.6% (κ = 0.465). For food groups, proportions ranged from 74.0% to 91.6% (κ = 0.249 to κ = 0.573). Less than 40% of the participants were found to adhere to recommendations for frequencies of eating fruits, vegetables, added sugar, and fish. Highest compliance to recommendations was seen for choosing water as beverage and limit the intake of red meat. The score was associated with parental socioeconomic status. The diet score was found to be reproducible at an acceptable level. Health promoting work targeting adolescents should emphasize to increase the intake of recommended foods to approach nutritional guidelines

Fatty fish intake and attention performance in 14–15 year old adolescents: FINS-TEENS - a randomized controlled trial

Abstract Background Fatty fish is the dominant dietary source of n-3 LCPUFAs but it also contains other micronutrients considered important for brain development and function. To our knowledge, the effect of fatty fish intake on cognitive function in adolescents has not been investigated in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) previously. The aim of the present trial was to investigate whether consumption of fatty fish meals three times per week for 12 weeks could alter attention performance in adolescents compared to similar meals with meat or n-3 LCPUFA supplements. Methods In the Fish Intervention Studies-TEENS (FINS-TEENS), adolescents from eight secondary schools (n = 426; age: 14-15y) were individually randomized. Attention performance was assessed with the d2 test of attention. Differences between groups from pre to post intervention were assessed with linear mixed effect models and general estimates equation. The fish group was set as reference. Dietary compliance was recorded for each meal throughout the trial and controlled for in the adjusted analyses. Results The improvement in processing speed was significantly lower in the meat (−11.8; 95% CI: -23.3, −0.4) and supplement (−13.4; 95% CI: -24.9, −1.8) group compared to the fish group (reference). The supplement group also showed inferior improvement in total performance (−10.4; 95% CI: -20.0, −0.7) compared to the fish group (reference). The results were slightly affected when controlling for dietary compliance. Omission errors decreased in the meat group compared to the fish group (Incidence rate ratio = 0.85; 95% CI: 0.74, 0.98), but the difference disappeared when controlling for dietary compliance. Conclusions We observed a small beneficial effect of fatty fish, compared to meat meals and supplements on processing speed. However, these results are difficult to interpret due to low dietary compliance. This study shows that different taste preferences among participants is challenging in intervention trials with food. A prospective cohort design may be a better alternative when studying diet in the future. Trial registration number ClinicalTrials.gov registration number: NCT02350322

Effect of dominant-negative mutants of μ subunits on somatodendritic sorting of NiV-F.

<p>(A–D) Rat hippocampal neurons were co-transfected with plasmids encoding NiV-F-GFP and wild-type (WT) or dominant-negative (DN) mutants of HA-tagged μ subunits (A-site mutants of μ1A, μ2, μ3A and μ4, and B-site mutant of μ4, as labeled on top of images). The effects of μ1A, μ2, μ3A and μ4 constructs are shown in panels A, B, C and D, respectively. Cells were immunostained with mouse anti-HA, rabbit anti-MAP2 and goat anti-ANK-G, and imaged as indicated in the legend to <a href="http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.ppat.1004107#ppat-1004107-g001" target="_blank">Figure 1</a>. Grayscale images shown in all panels correspond to NiV-GFP fluorescence. The anti-HA, anti-MAP2 and anti-ANK-G staining is shown in <a href="http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.ppat.1004107#ppat.1004107.s002" target="_blank">Figure S2</a>. Two images corresponding to different effects on NiV-F-GFP sorting (representing ∼75 and 25% of the neuronal population) observed following expression of μ2 D174A/W419S are shown in (B). The AIS and axons are marked by cyan and red arrowheads, respectively. Scale bar: 20 µm. See <a href="http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.ppat.1004107#ppat-1004107-t001" target="_blank">Table 1</a> for polarity indexes.</p

Fatty acid profile of the study population, and Pearson’s correlation coefficients between the fatty acids in red blood cells, expressed as relative amount, and the EPDS^‡ score (n = 43).

†<p>Measured fatty acid value below the limit of quantification for the method.</p>‡<p>Edinburgh postpartum depression scale.</p>§<p>Correlation between % of total fatty acid and EPDS.</p>∥<p>The content of EPA+DHA in red blood cells membranes expressed as a percent of total fatty acid.</p>¶<p>Total HUFA is the sum of the omega-3 and the omega-6 HUFAs, and the red blood cells omega-3 HUFA score equals 100% - omega-6 HUFA.</p

Socio-economical and behavioural characteristics of study participants (n = 55).

†<p>University or university college.</p>‡<p>n = 53 (2 participants with missing data).</p>§<p>100 000 NOK ≈ 14 000 EUR.</p>∥<p>n = 54 (1 participant missing data).</p

Participant’s response to the electronic questionnaire in pregnancy.

<p>Bar chart presenting the median EPDS score measured 3 months postpartum of non-responders (n = 8) and responders (n = 36) to an electronic questionnaire (seafood intake, demography, socioeconomically status, psychological status) in pregnancy. * Significantly difference at the 0.001 level. † 28th week gestation. ‡ Edinburgh postnatal depression scale.</p