The influence of dietary low and high unsaturated fats and cholesterol on the fatty acid pattern of serum and aortic cholesteryl esters and the lipid deposits of pig aorta.

16 three-month-old female pigs were divided into 3 groups. 6 animals received a semi-synthetic diet containing 15% sunflower oil (g/100 g food) and 1.25% cholesterol (SF group). In 6 animals the sunflower oil was replaced by beef tallow (BT group). 4 control animals 1.5% sunflower oil and without cholesterol. The serum cholesterol levels of the SF group rose moderately, those of the BT group moderately or highly. The relative lipid infiltrated intima area (LIA) and the cholesteryl ester (CE) content of aortas were generally lower in the SF group than in the BT group in comparison to the serum cholesterol levels. The dietary fatty acid pattern determined the fatty acid composition of CE in the serum and extracellular lipid of the aortic lesions. With regard to the intracellular changes of fatty acid pattern of CE (decrease in dienoic acid, predominantly linoleic acid, and increase in monoenoic acids, predominantly oleic acid, and in trienoic acids and higher unsaturated fatty acids), there were important differences between the 2 dietary groups. The dienoic acid content of CE decreased intracellularly from 61% to 30.5%, at the most, in the SF group, and then stopped. In the BT group only 26-35% dienoic acid was available from the extracellular CE and was reduced intracellularly to 9% at the most. In the SF group the intracellular increase in monoenoic acid content of CE was related to the decrease in dienoic acid content. In the BT group this was true only for some lipid deposits of the aorta; in other lesions the monoenoic acid content remained nearly constant or even decreased with decrease in linoleic acid whereas the increase in trienoic acid content was especially high suggesting that an unphysiological trienoic acid (20:3 delta 5, 8, 11), originating from oleic acid, was formed in greater amounts. Our findings point to the development of an essential fatty acid deficiency in the foam cells of aortic lesions in the BT group which may result in an unfavorable influence on the cholesterol clearance from the cells and the arterial wall.