Skip to main content
NUTRITION 2023 Main banner
Icon Legend
This session is not in your schedule.
This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.
Back

Topical Area: Maternal, Perinatal and Pediatric Nutrition

Maternal, Perinatal and Pediatric Nutrition (I) (Poster Session)

(P07-010-23) Docosahexaenoic Acid in Combination With Arachidonic Acid Alleviates Retinal Neovascularization in Mice Modeling Retinopathy of Prematurity

Saturday, July 22, 2023
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM ET
Location: Poster Board 127

    Presenting Author(s)

  • Myriam Boeck, MD (she/her/hers)

    Research Fellow
    Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School
    Boston, Massachusetts, United States

    • Co-Author(s)

  • HY

    Hitomi Yagi, MD

    Research fellow
    Department of Ophthalmology, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School
    Brookline, Massachusetts, United States

  • KN

    Katherine Neilsen

    Department of Ophthalmology, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School

  • JY

    Jay Yang

    Department of Ophthalmology, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School

  • MK

    Minji Ko

    Department of Ophthalmology, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School

  • AN

    Anders K Nilsson

    Section for Ophthalmology, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

  • AH

    Ann Hellström

    Section for Ophthalmology, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

  • ZF

    Zhongjie Fu

    Instructor
    Department of Ophthalmology, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School
    Boston, Massachusetts, United States

  • LS

    Lois EH Smith

    Department of Ophthalmology, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School

Disclosure(s):
Myriam Boeck, MD: No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.
Hitomi Yagi, MD: No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.


Objectives: Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a leading cause of blindness in children worldwide. Ideal composition of intravenous or oral nutritional substitution in premature infants and the potential protective effects of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) such as docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and arachidonic acid (AA) remain to be clarified. The aim of this study is to customize and analyze PUFA-enriched chow and to unveil the effect of maternal feeding with PUFA-enriched chow in the mouse oxygen-induced retinopathy (OIR) model mimicking ROP.

Methods: To induce OIR, mouse pups and their nursing dam were exposed to 75% oxygen from postnatal day (P) 7 to P12 and returned to room air at P12. The nursing dam was fed 3%DHA, 3%AA or 1%DHA+2%AA customized chow from P1 to P17. Pups were euthanized at P17, red blood cell (RBC) fatty acid composition was determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and retinal neovascularization (NV) and vaso-obliteration (VO) were quantified.

Results: In RBCs, the molar percentage of DHA was 11.0±2.1 (n=13 pups) in the DHA group, 7.4±0.9 (n=15) in DHA+AA and 3.4±1.3 (n=14) in the AA group. The molar percentage of AA was 12.7±1.5% in the DHA group, 17.6±0.8 in DHA+AA and 20.1±1.5 in the AA group. NV was significantly reduced by the DHA diet compared to AA (6.2±2.4% vs 12.9±1.6%, p< 0.0001, n=15-22 eyes) and was further reduced by the combined DHA+AA diet (5.9±1.4%, p< 0.0001 to AA and p< 0.01 to DHA, n=15). VO was significantly and similarly reduced by DHA (11.3±2.4%, p< 0.0001) and DHA+AA diet (8.5±2.6%, p< 0.0001) compared to AA only diet (21.0±3.0%). Bodyweight showed no significant difference between groups.

Conclusions: Our results highlighted the potential preventive and therapeutic impact of DHA supplementation in combination with AA. Further effort is required to translate these findings into clinical management of ROP.

Funding Sources: The research was funded by National Institutes of Health, Boston Children’s Hospital and Mass Lions Eye Foundation (LEHS); National Institutes of Health, Boston Children's Hospital (including OFD/BTREC/CTREC, Ophthalmology Foundation), Mass Lions Eye Foundation and Blind Children’s Center (ZF); Reinhard Marcuses fund (AKN); The Swedish Research Council (AH).