Role of Unsaturated Fatty Acids in Changes of Adipose and Dental Tissues in Vitamin E Deficiency

Abstract

Rats fed from birth a vit. E-deficient diet, containing the fatty acids from 20% of cod liver oil, exhibited considerable peroxida-tion and marked brown discoloration of the adipose tissue. The deposition of the normal yellow-brown pigment of the incisor teeth was inhibited in these animals. Rats fed the same basal diet, but given instead of fatty acids the non-saponifiable fraction from 20% of cod liver oil, failed to present such changes. Three different fatty acid fractions of cod liver oil were compared in the 2d part of the expt.: low, middle and highly unsaturated fractions were fed to 3 groups of rats also from birth. Only the animals fed the highly unsaturated fraction exhibited marked peroxidation and discoloration of the adipose tissue, comparable to the changes observed in the animals fed the total fatty acid fraction. The deposition of the normal incisor pigment in the maxillary incisors of these animals was at first retarded and then completely inhibited; in the mandibular incisors a complete depigmentation failed to occur within the ranges of the exptl. period. A study of the chemical nature of this normal enamel pigment showed that such pigment contains inorganic Fe in the ferric form, which alone accounts for the total color of the pigment. This pigment appears to be embedded in or loosely combined with an organic matrix. Depigmented enamel from teeth of vit. E-deficient rats failed to give positive reactions for Fe.