Effects of Adaptive and Nonadaptive Feeding of Hydrogenated and Raw Herring Oil on Hearts and Livers of Weanling Rats

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Abstract
It has been reported that the feeding of high levels of rapeseed oil to weanling rats leads to the eventual appearance of cardiac lesions. Marine oils have come under suspicion since most of them contain lesser amounts of the long-chain (C20 and C22) monounsaturated acids found in rapeseed oil. Weanling rats, male and female, were given diets containing 18% hydrogenated or raw herring oil for 24 days. Two other groups were adapted gradually to these diets during an initial period of 12 days. Control groups were kept on diets containing corn oil and lard. Histological investigations of the hearts failed to produce any evidence of unusual fat deposition or cardiac damage in any of the rats, either control or experimental. The possibility that a more prolonged feeding of the oil could lead to lesions cannot be excluded. Liver weights, when expressed as fractions of the body weights, were slightly, though significantly, higher (13–27%) in all groups fed with raw or hydrogenated herring oil, but histological examination failed to disclose any difference between these livers and those of the control groups. The experiments indicate that herring oil, raw or hydrogenated, when fed to weanling rats for 24 days, produced no untoward histological changes in the heart or liver tissues.

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