The administration of pig brain phospholipids versus soybean phospholipids in the diet during the period of brain development in the rat results in greater increments of brain docosahexaenoic acid.

Dietary porcine brain phospholipids are much more efficient than soybean phospholipids for ensuring a normal (optimal obtained with lab chow diet) level of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in tissues and brain subcellular fractions (brain myelin and nerve endings). Two weeks before mating, rats were divided into two groups (one group was subdivided into subgroups, fed with varying amounts of porcine brain phospholipids; the other group was divided into subgroups fed varying amounts of soybean phospholipids). Pups were killed when 21 days old. DHA (22:6(n-3)) increased up to normal levels in parallel with increasing amounts of (n-3) fatty acids (omega-3 fatty acids) in the diet, up to 60 mg with dietary porcine brain phospholipids and up to 200 mg with soybean phospholipids. Thus a smaller amount of dietary brain phospholipids resulted in the same level of DHA in tissues as a larger amount of dietary soybean phospholipids. In contrast, 22:5(n-6) declined when (n-3) fatty acids in the diet increased. It stabilized at 60 mg of (n-3) fatty acids/100 g diet with brain phospholipids, and approximately 200 mg/100 g diet with soybean phospholipids. As 22:5(n-6) replaced DHA in tissue when (n-3) fatty acids were not sufficient in the diet, this result shows that the recovery of a normal (and minimal) amount of 22:5(n-6) was obtained with lower dietary levels of brain phospholipids compared with soybean phospholipids.