ABSTRACT: Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6n-3) and arachidonic acid (ARA, 20:4n-6) are the major long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFA) of the central nervous system. We examined the alterations in transcriptional profiles in neonate baboon cerebral cortex brain tissue using high-density Affymetrix oligonucleotide arrays ("U133 plus 2.0"). Twelve neonates were divided into 3 groups: Control (C, no DHA-ARA); 1× LCPUFA (L, 0.33%DHA-0.67%ARA); 3× LCPUFA (L3, 1.00%DHA-0.67%ARA). Significance analysis (P < 0.05) of a total of >54,000 probe sets (ps) identified changes in expression levels of 1108 ps, representing 2.05% of the total ps on the oligoarray, with most ps showing <2-fold change. Comparing L and C, 534 ps were upregulated with supplementation, and 574 ps were downregulated. For the L3/C comparisons, 666 ps were upregulated and 442 ps were downregulated. Characterization of differentially regulated genes by gene ontology assign them to diverse biological functions, notably lipid metabolism, ion channel and transport, G-protein and signal transduction, development, visual perception, membrane function, apoptosis, cytoskeleton, peptidases, cell cycle, stress response, kinases and phosphatases, transcription regulation, receptors, and ubiquitin, with about 400 transcripts having no defined function. Of differentially expressed genes involved in lipid metabolism, PLA2G6, a phospholipase recently associated with infantile neuroaxonal dystrophy, was downregulated in both LCPUFA groups. ELOVL5, a PUFA elongase, was the only enzyme in the LCPUFA biosynthetic pathway that was differentially expressed. Mitochondrial fatty acid carrier, CPT2, was among several genes associated with mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation to be downregulated, while the mitochondrial proton carrier, UCP2, was upregulated. PUFA-regulated receptor, Retinoic acid receptor alpha (RARA) was repressed in both groups, while HNF4A, a PUFA regulated factor, was downregulated in L3/C. Genes involved in neural development, TIMM8A, NRG1, SEMA3D and NUMB, were upregulated while HES1 and SIM1 showed decreased expression. LUM, EML2, TIMP3 and TTC8 which have roles in visual perception were upregulated and TIA1, a silencer of COX2 gene translation is upregulated in L3/C. Ingenuity network analysis identified a top network associated with nervous system development and function with EGFR as the outstanding interaction partner. In this network EGFR interacts with genes involved in neural or visual perception, TIMP3, NRG1, ADAM17, EDG7 and FGF7. Quantitative real time-PCR analysis on selected genes confirmed the array results. The L and L3 groups have DHA and ARA content within the ranges observed in human and baboon breastmilk, and thus these data indicate that LCPUFA concentrations within the normal range of human breastmilk induce global changes in gene expression across numerous functions including transcripts involved in neural development, visual perception, etc. Keywords: dietary dose response
