Geometrical and positional isomer content of the monounsaturated fatty acids from various rat tissues.

The percentage distribution of the geometrical and positional isomers in the hexadecenoates and octadecenoates isolated from triglycerides, phosphatidylcholines, and phosphatidylethanolamines of brain, heart, kidney, liver, lung, muscle, spleen, and adipose tissues from normal rats maintained on a laboratory diet has been determined. All of the octadecenoates and most of the hexadecenoates from the lipid classes of all the tissues consisted of more than 95% cis isomers. Generally, palmitoleic was the predominant hexadeceonate, but many of the tissue phospholipids contained relatively high percentages of the delta 6 and delta 7 isomers. Oleate and vaccenate were the predominant octadecenoates in all tissues. Except for brain and adipose tissues, the oleate to vaccenate ratios differed for each lipid class, as well as between most tissues. In contrast to the monoenes of the phospholipids, the triglyceride monoenes exhibited the same approximate: percentage composition; percentage of geometrical isomers; and percentage distribution of hexadecenoate and octadecenoate positional isomers. These data add to our basic information about the percentage distribution of geometrical and positional isomers of naturally occurring unsaturated fatty acids in the major lipid classes of various normal tissues. Some new concepts were advanced as possible explanations to some of the observed positional isomer distributions.