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Fatty acids (FAs) exert diverse biological functions in humans, influencing physiological responses and, ultimately, health and disease risk. The analysis of FAs in human samples has significant implications and attracts interest in diagnostics and research. The standard method for assessing FA profiles involves the collection of blood samples, which can be inconvenient, invasive, and potentially painful, particularly for young individuals outside hospital settings. Saliva emerged as a promising alternative for evaluating FA profiles in both clinical and research settings. However, to the best of our knowledge, an updated synthesis of the related evidence is unavailable. This comprehensive review aims to summarize data on FA analysis and highlight the potential of the use of salivary FAs as a biomarker in health and disease. Over the past decade, there has been a growing interest in studying salivary FAs in chronic diseases, and more recently, researchers have explored the prognostic value of FAs in acute conditions to check the availability of a non-invasive sampling methodology. A deeper understanding of salivary FAs could have relevant implications both for healthy individuals and patients, particularly in elucidating the correlation between the dietary lipidic content and salivary FA level, Finally, it is crucial to address the standardization of the methods as the sampling, processing, and analysis of saliva are heterogeneous among studies, and limited correlation between blood FAs and salivary FAs is available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The fatty acid supply of human milk (HM) contributes to health outcomes. Sampling fresh human milk to analyze its fatty acid content is challenging because of its ever-changing nature. Also, obtaining samples from lactating mothers is challenging. Facilitating HM collection and analysis is therefore an advantage., Methods: We have conducted a study to validate a new method for obtaining HM samples for fatty acid analysis, using biological fluid sample collection pretreated sheets to adsorb drops of milk (Whatman 903 BHT-pretreated biological fluid collection sheet) as an alternative approach to collecting expressed milk. The study population included lactating mothers, enrolled between 24 and 96 h after delivery., Results: A total of 124 breastmilk samples were analyzed using the two distinct approaches. The results of the free milk analysis were comparable to the analysis of adsorbed milk samples. The fatty acid families saturated fatty acids (SFA), monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA), polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), omega-3, and omega-6 had r 2 values of 0.93, 0.91, 0.91, 0.86, and 0.90, respectively. Bland-Altman plots showed a high agreement between fresh and adsorbed milk samples for SFA, MUFA, PUFA, omega-3, and omega-6 with a mean bias <2% and 95% limits of agreement within -5% and +5%., Conclusions: The results show no significant differences in fatty acid composition between fresh and adsorbed milk samples, suggesting the new method is equally effective in collecting representative samples for analysis., (© 2024 The Author(s). Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of European Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition and North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition.)