Statistical Study of the Relationship between Dietary Linoleate and the Fatty Acids of Heart and Blood Lipids

Abstract

A number of statistical techniques were applied to the study of tissue analysis, dermal score, and weight gain data obtained from rats maintained with controlled intakes of linoleic acid and total fat. The correlation between each of these variables and dietary linoleate as well as all other variables was presented. The correlation matrix thus generated was used for multiple regression and factor analysis studies. By means of multiple regression equations, a close relationship was established between dietary linoleate and heart lipid composition, and a lesser correlation was found to exist in the case of plasma and erythrocyte lipid compositions. The use of such relationships in the study of individual variations in linoleate requirement was discussed. Factor analysis was used to present a simplified view of the relationships between the different variables discussed above. The results showed, for example, the high positive correlation between dietary linoleate intake and the concentrations of dienes, tetraenes and pentaenes in tissue lipids, and the high negative correlation between dietary linoleate intake and the tissue trienes. Through a variant of this factor analysis procedure, the relationship was depicted between each animal in this study and all of the other animals when their conditions were compared in terms of their tissue lipid composition, dermal score and weight gain. On the basis of this diagram, conclusions were drawn with respect to the nutritional requirement for linoleate and the nature of the change in lipid metabolism that occurs as the linoleate intake was reduced below this minimum figure.