Metabolism of Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and Serum Cholesterol Levels in the Rat

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Abstract
Male albino rats were fasted for 4 days and then fed various fats in order to study the effect of the fat upon blood ketone and liver glycogen levels. The fats included coconut oil, lard, and linseed, safflower and tung oils. The ingestion of the more saturated fats, and tung oil with its conjugated double bonds, was associated with higher blood ketone levels than the other more unsaturated fats. The opposite was true for liver glycogen levels except for coconut oil which may have spared glycogen by its more rapid oxidation. The results obtained are in line with the speculation that the polyunsaturated fatty acids during their utilization might be so degraded that the 3-carbon fragments between the double bonds formed would be more glycogenic in nature than the ketolytic 2-carbon fragments produced when saturated fatty acids are oxidized. The speculation was advanced that such degradation, if true, might play some part in affecting blood cholesterol and lipid levels.