The Fatty Acids of Adrenal Lipids from Essential Fatty Acid-deficient Rats

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Abstract
Male rats were fed for 36 weeks diets containing 10% corn oil or 10% hydrogenated coconut oil. The adrenal lipids were extracted, fractionated by column chromatography and the fatty acid composition of the fractions determined by gasliquid chromatography. The major fatty acid in the cholesterol ester fraction from the deficient rats was identified as 7,10,13-docosatrienoic acid (22:3ω9) and this accounted for 25% of the total fatty acids in this fraction. The polyunsaturated acid usually found in tissues from EFA-deficient animals, 5,8,11-eicosatrienoic acid (20:3ω9), constituted 21% of the total adrenal cholesterol ester fatty acids. This pattern in the deficient rats refiected that found in the control animals where 22:4ω6 and 20:4ω6 were the major acids. The structure of the 22:3ω9 acid was confirmed by ozonolysis. Just as the 22:4ω6 acid was characteristic of the adrenal cholesterol esters and was not a major component of the triglycerides or phospholipids of normal animals, no 22:3ω9 acid was found in the triglyceride fraction and very little in the phospholipid fraction from the adrenals of EFA-deficient rats. Arachidonic and 20:3ω9 were the major polyunsaturated acids of the phospholipids from normal and deficient rat adrenals, respectively.