Structural importance of the cis-5 ethylenic bond in the endogenous desaturation product of dietary elaidic acid, cis-5,trans-9 18:2 acid, for the acylation of rat mitochondria phosphatidylinositol.

When rats were fed elaidic (trans-9 18:1) acid at a high load in diets that were otherwise marginally or almost completely deficient in linoleic (cis-9,cis-12 18:2) acid, elaidic acid was desaturated to cis-5,trans-9 18:2 acid. This polymethylene-interrupted acid was then incorporated into most phospholipids from rat mitochondria, cardiolipin being an exception. Its level of esterification in phospholipids followed the increasing order: phosphatidylethanolamine < phosphatidylcholine < phosphatidylinositol (PI). The content of cis-5,trans-9 18:2 acid decreased in organs in the order liver > kidney > heart. The levels of cis-5,trans-9 18:2 acid increased in mitochondria phospholipids as the level of linoleic acid was lowered in the diet. In liver mitochondria PI, it reached 16% of total fatty acids. After hydrolysis of liver mitochondria PI with Naja naja phospholipase A2, we observed that elaidic acid was essentially esterified to position 1 at the expense of saturated acids, whereas cis-5,trans-9 18:2 acid was exclusively esterified to position 2, along with 20:3n-9 and 20:4n-6 acids. As a consequence, the sums of saturated and trans-9 18:1 acids on the one hand, and of 20:3n-9, 20:4n-6, and cis-5,trans-9 18:2 acids on the other hand, remained fairly constant in liver mitochondria PI (ca. 55 and 30%, respectively). Because trans-9 18:1 and cis-5,trans-9 18:2 acids differ only by the cis-5 ethylenic bond, which is also present in 20:3n-9 and 20:4n-6 acids, this distribution pattern indicates that the cis-5 double bond, rather than any other ethylenic bond, may be of major structural importance for channeling fatty acids to position 2 of PI.