Fatty‐acid composition of breast and iliac adipose tissue in breast‐cancer patients

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Abstract
In order to determine to what extent the fatty‐acid composition of breast adipose tissue is representative of the body‐fat composition in breast carcinoma, we compared the fatty‐acid composition of breast adipose tissue to that of iliac fat in breast‐cancer patients. Triglycerides from the 2 sites were purified by thin‐layer chromatography and fatty‐acid composition was determined by capillary gas chromatography. Compared with iliac fat, mammary fat was higher in saturated (33.2 ± 3.9 vs. 24.4 ± 1.6%;p= 0.0001) and lower in mono‐ unsaturated (48.0 ± 2.2 vs. 54.8 ± 2.7%;p= 0.0001) and poly‐ unsaturated fatty acids (16.6 ± 3.7 vs. 18.0 ± 3.l%;p= 0.0001). A positive correlation was found between the 2 sites for linoleate (r= 0.95;p= 0.0003), alpha‐linolenate (r= 0.83;p= 0.01), palmitate (r= 0.78;p= 0.02) and palmitoleate (r= 0.76;p= 0.02). No relationship was observed for stearic and oleic acids. We conclude that breast and iliac fat differ with regard to fatty‐acid composition. The interpretation of fatty‐ acid composition of the body stores in breast‐cancer patients, as an indicator of long‐term intake of dietary fat, should take into account the sampling site of stored lipids.