Abstract: Objective: To investigate the comparative effects of post-weaning dietary docosahexaenoic acidphosphatidylserine (DHA-PS) and DHA-triglyceride (DHA-TG) on DHA concentration and fatty acid composition of lipids in various tissues of developing mice. Methods: ICR female mice were fed n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) deficient diet during maternal pregnancy and lactation, and the weanling (3-week old) ICR-strain male mouse pups were randomly assigned to three groups, which were fed three different types of diets including n-3 PUFAs deficiency (n-3 PUFAs Def group), DHA-TG (DHA-TG group) and DHA-PS (DHA-PS group), respectively. After 2 weeks of feeding, all mouse pups were sacrificed, and cortex, testis, liver, and red blood cells were harvested for detecting DHA level and fatty acid composition of lipids. Results: Compared to the n-3 Def group, the concentration of DHA in developing mouse tissues in the DHA-TG and DHA-PS groups was significantly increased, whereas the concentrations of docosapentaenoic acid (DPA) and arachidonic acid (AA) were decreased. The DHA-PS group exhibited significantly higher DHA levels in erythrocytes, liver triglyceride and phospholipid but lower DHA level in testis compared with the DHA-TG group. There was no difference in DHA level in cortex between the two groups. Conclusion: Dietary supplementation of DHA-PS and DHA-TG significantly increased the level of DHA in the tissues of developing mice, but resulted in different accumulation patterns of DHA and DHA-PS more effectively increased DHA contents in the liver and erythrocytes.

Key words: docosahexaenoic acid, docosahexaenoic acid-phosphatidylserine, triacylglycerol, phospholipid, mice