Effects of linolenic acid deficiency on the fatty acid patterns in plasma and liver cholesteryl esters, triglycerides and phospholipids in female rats.

These experiments were performed to measure the effects of linolenate deficiency upon neutral lipids of plasma and liver, and to search for a metabolic interaction between dietary choline and linolenic acid. Rats were fed for two generations on a linolenic acid-deficient diet containing methyl linoleate as the only source of lipid. Control rats were supplemented with methyl linolenate. Second-generation linolenate-deficient rats and control rats were fed low-methionine, choline-deficient diets for 2 weeks. Half the animals in each group were given choline-supplemented diets. Plasma and liver total cholesterol, esterified cholesterol, triglyceride and major phospholipid classes, and the fatty acids of these classes were measured. Linolenic acid deficiency reduced the concentrations of plasma triglycerides in both choline-deficient and choline-supplemented rats. Evidence for a metabolic interaction between choline and linolenic acid was not obtained because the rats responded very weakly to the choline deficiency. Linolenate deficiency reduced the proportions of n-3 fatty acids, particularly 22:6n-3, in all the lipids analyzed.