Myocardial fatty acid pattern in rats fed on an erucic acid enriched diet.

Individual lipid classes and their fatty acid pattern in myocardium of rats fed on a diet containing 10% erucic acid ethyl ester (cis-13-docosenoic acid ethyl ester) were investigated and compared to rats fed on a normal diet. Two groups of rats were treated for 10 consecutive days with the erucic acid ethyl ester diet and the standard diet, respectively. After extracting total lipids from the myocardium of the rats, the individual lipid classes and the percentage of fatty acids in phospholipids, free fatty acids, diglycerides and triglycerides were measured. The data obtained demonstrate that the erucic acid ethyl ester diet induces a marked increase in free fatty acids and in triglycerides and marked differences in fatty acid pattern in triglycerides, free fatty acids and diglycerides, but only marginal differences in phospholipids, which seem to be carefully preserved as fundamental components of cell and mitochondria membranes.