Fatty acid changes in the hepatic endoplasmic reticulum during pregnancy in the rat.

In the rat, pregnancy caused a significant reduction of total hepatic and microsomal phospholipid content mainly manifesting in phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine and lysophosphatidylcholine fractions. Fatty acid content of the liver and microsomes was also reduced. The major components involved in this change were palmitic, stearic, oleic, linoleic and arachidonic acids. The level of docosahexaenoic acid was raised; the other acyl components remained unaltered. All these chnages were reversible; both hepatic and microsomal phospholipids and fatty acids returned to the non-pregnany level 2--3 weeks after delivery.