Metabolism of ingested erucic acid in the rat.

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The metabolic fate of ingested erucic acid and linoleic acid was investigated. These fatty acids (FA) were administered by feeding rats a diet containing 20% mustard seed oil (37% of its total fatty acids consisted of erucic acid) or 20% corn oil (62% of its total fatty acids consisted of linoleic acid). The dietary regimens were begun at weaning, and at the end of 1st, 3rd or 6th wk of feeding the rats were killed; lipids were extracted from the plasma, hearts, livers and adipose tissue and their FA compositions were determined. In the rats fed the mustard seed oil diet, the FA composition of the chylomicrons, plasma triglyceride and free fatty acid (FFA) resembled that of the mustard seed oil, i.e., erucic acid composed approximately 30% of the total FA. When these rats were fasted overnight prior to the analyzes, the FA composition of the plasma triglyceride and FFA changed so that the erucic acid content decreased to nearly 5% of the total FA, suggesting conversion and/or elimination. A larger fraction of injected [1-14C]erucic acid than of [1-14C]palmitic acid was eliminated from the rat body during 18 h. The FA composition of the chylomicrons obtained from rats fed the mustard seed oil diet for 6 wk contained proportionately less erucic acid and more oleic acid than did that of the chylomicrons obtained from rats fed this diet for 3 wk. At the end of 6 wk of feeding of the mustard seed oil diet, the relative content of erucic acid was very small in the adipose tissue lipids and phospho- and neutral lipids of the liver and heart although hyperlipemia persisted. The lipoprotein lipase activity measured with heart homogenates was increased in the mustard seed oil-fed rats. In a 6 wk period, the corn oil diet increased the proportion of linoleic acid in the neutral lipid FA of the heart, liver, adipose tissue and plasma. Rat tissues can rapidly metabolize erucic acid; some of the erucic acid is converted to oleic acid, and this conversion appears accelerated by the continuous feeding of a diet rich in erucic acid. Although the FA composition of tissue lipids is modified by that of the dietary fat, the relative accumulation of linoleic acid in the tissue lipids during the high fat-hight linoleic acid regimen was greater than that of erucic acid during the feeding of the high fat-high erucic acid diet.

This publication has 24 references indexed in Scilit: