The effect of vitamin E administration to pregnant women, on the concentration of linoleic acid in adipose tissue of the newborns.

The composition of various lipids were measured in ten healthy newborns of mothers who were treated with 100 mg vitamin E per day, starting in the 35th week of pregnancy. The maternal serum vitamin E levels following the treatment (1.10 +/- 0.49 mg/dl) showed no increase as compared to the pretreatment values (1.06 +/- 0.38 mg/dl). There was no significant difference in serum vitamin E levels in those newborns whose mothers were treated--(0.19 +/- 0.12 mg/dl) as compared to 10 newborns whose mothers were not treated with vitamin E (0.13 +/- 0.07 mg/dl). However, there was a striking increase in the relative concentration of linoleic acid in the adipose tissue to those newborns whose mothers were treated (9.4%--versus--4.1%).