DHA is quantitatively the most important omega-3 PUFA in the brain to partition differently in raft and non-raft domains in membranes (Williams et al., 2012).
DHA had a much greater tendency to accumulate into sphingomyelin/cholesterol- rich lipid rafts than EPA, and therefore had a much greater potential to affect cell signaling by modify the composition of these lipid rafts.
The SPMs are a rapidly expanding class of autacoid molecules involved in the active resolution of inflammation and are produced through COX and LOX pathways (Serhan et al., 2008).
EPA produces E-series resolvins (RvE), whereas DHA produces docosanoid, such as Protectins, D-series resolvins (RvD) and maresins.
Dietary supplementation with 1 g EPA and 0.4 g DHA per day for 4 months significantly increases the formation of 5-oxo-EPA and 7-oxo-DHA (Cipollina et al., 2014), and consistent with the formation of resolvins from DHA
Early studies focused on DHA and found beneficial effects on neurite outgrowth in terms of overall length and complexity of outgrowth.