Alterations in the molecular species of rat liver lecithin by corn-oil feeding to essential fatty acid-deficient rats as a function of time

Abstract

The present paper describes, as a function of time, the qualitative and quantitative alterations in the molecular species pattern of rat liver lecithin which are observed when corn oil is fed to essential fatty acid-deficient rats. One of the most important changes observed was a very rapid replacement of (1-palmitoyl-2-eicosatrienoyl)- and (1-stearoyl-2-eicosatrienoyl)-lecithin by (1-palmitoyl-2-arachidonoyl)- and (1-stearoyl-2-arachidonoyl)-lecithin, respectively. Whereas this event occurred during a period of 9 days of corn oil feeding, the increase of (1-palmitoyl-2-linoleoyl)- and (1-stearoyl-2-linoleoyl)-lecithin had already reached the maximum level after 3 days. On the other hand a very rapid disappearance of the species (di-octadecenoyl)- and (1-hexadecenoyl-2-octadecenoyl)-lecithin was observed during this period. The decrease of the species (1-stearoyl-2-octadecenoyl)-lecithin was rather slow, whereas (1-palmitoyl-2-octadecenoyl)-lecithin started to diminish only 9 days after the change in diet. The results presented here suggest that different metabolic pathways may contribute, to a different extent, to the replacement of the individual molecular species of rat liver lecithin induced by a change of diet.