Dietary fish oil affects food intake, growth and hematologic values of weanling rats / El aceite de pescado afecta el consumo de alimento, el crecimiento y los valores hematológicos de las ratas recién destetadas

RESUMEN

The object of this study was to evaluate the effect of increasing amounts of dietary fish oil on growth and hematological variables of the weanling male Sprague-Dewley rat. Animals were fed diets containing either fish oil (FO) or sesame oil (SO) at 5,10 or 15 por ciento (w/w) for 31d. Growth retardation and reduced food intake was noted groups fed FO. Hemoglobin (Hb) concentration diminished when the dietary FO was above 5 por ciento (w/w). Fo is a poor source of (n-6) fatty acids. We postulate that a partial deficiency in (n-6) polyenic family, is a consequence of the increasing amounts of FO in the diets, that may affects growth and erytropoiesis. In this report we show evidence supporting the hypothesis that diets enriched with fiish oil can alter normal growth and induced hematological changes in the male weanling rat. Key words Fish oil, low (n-6) (n-3) ratio, growth, erytropoiesis, male Sprague-Dewley rats