The Ratio of Trienoic: Tetraenoic Acids in Tissue Lipids as a Measure of Essential Fatty Acid Requirement

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Abstract
Male weanling rats were fed diets containing no fat, 10% of calories as butterfat, cottonseed oil or an 80/20 mixture of these, and 40% of calories as butterfat, cottonseed oil or the 80/20 mixture. Polyunsaturated acids were determined in heart tissue, erythrocytes and plasma after 89 days on the dietary regimes. The polyunsaturated fatty acid pattern indicated a relationship to the content of linoleic acid in the diet. A plot of the percentage of trienoic acid in the endogenous PUFA versus dietary linoleate breaks at about 1% of calories. This is also true of plots of tetraenoic acid which increase to a maximum value as dietary linoleate reaches 1% of calories. A ratio of triene/tetraene in plasma, erythrocytes or heart tissue less than approximately 0.4 indicates that the minimum requirement of linoleate (1% of calories) has been met.