Spector Arthur A, Kim Hee-Yong
Laboratory of Molecular Signaling, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892.
J Lipid Res. 2015 Jan;56(1):11-21. doi: 10.1194/jlr.R055095. Epub 2014 Oct 22.
Dietary fat was recognized as a good source of energy and fat-soluble vitamins by the first part of the 20th century, but fatty acids were not considered to be essential nutrients because they could be synthesized from dietary carbohydrate. This well-established view was challenged in 1929 by George and Mildred Burr who reported that dietary fatty acid was required to prevent a deficiency disease that occurred in rats fed a fat-free diet. They concluded that fatty acids were essential nutrients and showed that linoleic acid prevented the disease and is an essential fatty acid. The Burrs surmised that other unsaturated fatty acids were essential and subsequently demonstrated that linolenic acid, the omega-3 fatty acid analog of linoleic acid, is also an essential fatty acid. The discovery of essential fatty acids was a paradigm-changing finding, and it is now considered to be one of the landmark discoveries in lipid research.
到20世纪上半叶，膳食脂肪被认为是能量和脂溶性维生素的良好来源，但脂肪酸不被视为必需营养素，因为它们可以由膳食碳水化合物合成。1929年，乔治和米尔德里德·伯尔对这一既定观点提出了挑战，他们报告称，膳食脂肪酸是预防在喂食无脂饮食的大鼠中出现的一种缺乏症所必需的。他们得出结论，脂肪酸是必需营养素，并表明亚油酸可预防该疾病，是一种必需脂肪酸。伯尔夫妇推测其他不饱和脂肪酸也是必需的，随后证明亚麻酸，即亚油酸的ω-3脂肪酸类似物，也是一种必需脂肪酸。必需脂肪酸的发现是一个改变范式的发现，现在被认为是脂质研究中的标志性发现之一。
