Fatty Acid Composition of Rat Liver Lipids during Choline Deficiency

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Abstract
The fatty acid compositions of whole liver triglycerides, diglycerides, total phospholipids, and lecithin, and mitochondrial total phospholipids and lecithin were determined on rats which had developed fatty livers after they had been fed a low protein, choline-deficient diet for 10 or 28 days. Experiments were conducted with either a hydrogenated vegetable oil or safflower oil as the source of dietary fat. Overall, there was essentially no difference in the fatty acid patterns of the liver lipids from the choline-deficient animals when compared with those receiving a choline supplement. However, the type of fat and carbohydrate in the diet accounted for changes in the fatty acid composition in both the choline-deprived and choline-fed rats. The hydrogenated vegetable oil, which has a high amount of oleic acid, caused the liver lipid oleic acid content to increase and produced a lowering of the linoleic and arachadonic acid levels, whereas safflower oil, containing a high content of linoleic acid, caused the liver lipid oleic acid level to drop while the linoleic acid level remained nearly constant. An increase in the palmitic acid and palmitoleic acid content of all the liver lipids analyzed was observed and was attributed to the high carbohydrate content of the semi-purified diets. It was concluded that the accumulation of liver neutral lipid during choline deficiency in the rat is not accompanied by changes in the fatty acid patterns of liver neutral lipids or liver phospholipids which can be ascribed directly to the lack of choline. The alterations noted in the liver lipid fatty compositions may be attributed to changes in the dietary fat and to the dietary carbohydrate levels.