Studies on essential fatty acid deficiency. Effect of the deficiency on the lipids in various rat tissues and the influence of dietary supplementation with essential fatty acids on deficient rats

Abstract

Deficiency of essential fatty acids in the diet of the rat resulted in marked changes in constituent fatty acids of the nitrogenous-phospholipid and cardiolipin fractions. In the former there is a replacement of arachidonic acid and linoleic acids by palmitoleic acid, oleic acid and eicosatrienoic acids. In the cardiolipin fraction, where linoleic acid is normally the predominant unsaturated fatty acid, dietary deficiency results in replacement of this acid and to a less extent of arachidonic acid by palmitoleic acid, oleic acid and eicosatrienoic acid. Dietary deficiency of essential fatty acids resulted in a fall in the proportion of linoleic acid and a rise in those of palmitoleic acid, oleic acid and eicosatrienoic acid in the neutral-lipid fractions of heart, kidney and liver when comparison is made with the corresponding values for stock-fed animals. The proportion of arachidonic acid, which is low in the neutral lipids of most normal tissues except brain, are little changed as a result of dietary deficiency. mentation of animals with corn oil over a period of 16 days reversed Dietary supplementation of animals with corn oil over aperiod of 16 days reversed the changes induced by deficiency in the fatty acid constituents of the heart, kidney and liver.