The DOI matches its Crossref record; 180 of the 180 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Is docosahexaenoic acid synthesis from α-linolenic acid sufficient to supply the adult brain?
Open accessAbstract
Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) is important for brain function, and can be obtained directly from the diet or synthesized in the body from α-linolenic acid (ALA). Debate exists as to whether DHA synthesized from ALA can provide sufficient DHA for the adult brain, as measures of DHA synthesis from ingested ALA are typically <1% of the oral ALA dose. However, the primary fate of orally administered ALA is β-oxidation and long-term storage in adipose tissue, suggesting that DHA synthesis measures involving oral ALA tracer ingestion may underestimate total DHA synthesis. There is also evidence that DHA synthesized from ALA can meet brain DHA requirements, as animals fed ALA-only diets have brain DHA concentrations similar to DHA-fed animals, and the brain DHA requirement is estimated to be only 2.4-3.8 mg/day in humans. This review summarizes evidence that DHA synthesis from ALA can provide sufficient DHA for the adult brain by examining work in humans and animals involving estimates of DHA synthesis and brain DHA requirements. Also, an update on methods to measure DHA synthesis in humans is presented highlighting a novel approach involving steady-state infusion of stable isotope-labeled ALA that bypasses several limitations of oral tracer ingestion. It is shown that this method produces estimates of DHA synthesis that are at least 3-fold higher than brain uptake rates in rats.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
1 retracted
Rao, J. S., Ertley, R. N., Lee, H.-J., DeMar, J. C., Arnold, J. T., Rapoport, S. I., & Bazinet, R. P. (2007) · Molecular Psychiatry · doi:10.1038/sj.mp.4001888 · Cited by 279
Self-citationRetractedTrumbo, P., Schlicker, S., Yates, A. A., & Poos, M. (2002) · Journal of the American Dietetic Association · doi:10.1016/s0002-8223(02)90346-9 · Cited by 5,993
Impacts of Biodiversity Loss on Ocean Ecosystem Services
Worm, B., Barbier, E. B., Beaumont, N., Duffy, J. E., Folke, C., Halpern, B. S., Jackson, J. B. C., Lotze, H. K., Micheli, F., Palumbi, S. R., et al. (2006) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1132294 · Cited by 4,544
Mfsd2a is a transporter for the essential omega-3 fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid
Nguyen, L. N., Ma, D., Shui, G., Wong, P., Cazenave-Gassiot, A., Zhang, X., Wenk, M. R., Goh, E. L. K., & Silver, D. L. (2014) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature13241 · Cited by 1,048
Conversion of α -linolenic acid to longer-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in human adults
Burdge, G. C., & Calder, P. C. (2005) · Reproduction Nutrition Development · doi:10.1051/rnd:2005047 · Cited by 939
Dietary (n-3) Fatty Acids and Brain Development1
Innis, S. M. (2007) · The Journal of Nutrition · doi:10.1093/jn/137.4.855 · Cited by 906
Blasbalg, T. L., Hibbeln, J. R., Ramsden, C. E., Majchrzak, S. F., & Rawlings, R. R. (2011) · The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition · doi:10.3945/ajcn.110.006643 · Cited by 881
Lukiw, W. J. (2005) · Journal of Clinical Investigation · doi:10.1172/jci25420 · Cited by 872
Metabolism of highly unsaturated n-3 and n-6 fatty acids
Sprecher, H. (2000) · Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Molecular and Cell Biology of Lipids · doi:10.1016/s1388-1981(00)00077-9 · Cited by 868
Brenna, J. T., Salem, N., Sinclair, A. J., & Cunnane, S. C. (2009) · Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes and Essential Fatty Acids · doi:10.1016/j.plefa.2009.01.004 · Cited by 863
Cited by
Health benefits of dietary marine DHA/EPA-enriched glycerophospholipids
Zhang, T.-T., Xu, J., Wang, Y.-M., & Xue, C.-H. (2019) · Progress in Lipid Research · doi:10.1016/j.plipres.2019.100997 · Cited by 339
Algae: Critical Sources of Very Long-Chain Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids
Harwood, J. (2019) · Biomolecules · doi:10.3390/biom9110708 · Cited by 171
The Eye, Oxidative Damage and Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids
Saccà, S. C., Cutolo, C. A., Ferrari, D., Corazza, P., & Traverso, C. E. (2018) · Nutrients · doi:10.3390/nu10060668 · Cited by 150
Davis, D. J., Hecht, P. M., Jasarevic, E., Beversdorf, D. Q., Will, M. J., Fritsche, K., & Gillespie, C. H. (2017) · Brain, Behavior, and Immunity · doi:10.1016/j.bbi.2016.09.003 · Cited by 112
Comparison of Diatoms and Dinoflagellates from Different Habitats as Sources of PUFAs
Peltomaa, E., Hällfors, H., & Taipale, S. J. (2019) · Marine Drugs · doi:10.3390/md17040233 · Cited by 73
Metadata
- Authors
- Domenichiello, A. F., Kitson, A. P., & Bazinet, R. P.
- Venue
- Progress in Lipid Research
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2015-07
- Volume
- 59
- Pages
- 54-66
- ISSN
- 0163-7827 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W414781422
- Cited by
- 252
- References
- 180
- FWCI
- 17.34
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
How to cite
Cite CoChat for the checks on this page, and the paper for its own findings.
- This page
- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Is docosahexaenoic acid synthesis from α-linolenic acid sufficient to supply the adult brain? https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1016/j.plipres.2015.04.002
- The paper
- Domenichiello, A. F., Kitson, A. P., & Bazinet, R. P. (2015). Is docosahexaenoic acid synthesis from α-linolenic acid sufficient to supply the adult brain? Progress in Lipid Research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plipres.2015.04.002
Data sources
Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
