Comparison of the fatty acid composition of lipids from different animal tissues including some tumours

Abstract

With the aid of gas-liquid chromatography comparative fatty acid analyses have been made in lipid fractions of a number of mammalian tissues. Neutral lipid fractions seemed to possess animal specificity, i.e., their fatty acid patterns differed from animal to animal, but resembled one another for different tissues of one animal. On the other hand, phosphatides showed some tissue specificity, since their fatty acid patterns differed within one animal but showed similarity in homologue tissues (including tumours) of different animals. Fatty acid compositions of phosphatide fractions and of lipids from mitochondrial membrane preparations from the same tissue showed great similarity. Cell fractions did not differ in the fatty acid patterns of their lipid fractions from those of the whole tissue.