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Intensification of Essential Fatty Acid Deficiency in the Rat by Dietary trans Fatty Acids¹

The Hormel Institute, University of Minnesota, Austin, Minnesota 55912

Two studies were conducted using male rats to assess the effect of trans fatty acids upon essential fatty acid (EFA) deficiency. In the first study 5% corn oil (CO), hydrogenated coconut oil (HCNO) or margarine stock (MS, partially hydrogenated soybean oil) were fed, and the levels of trans fatty acids in tissue lipids were measured. The trans fatty acids present in MS were found to intensify EFA deficiency and to be retained in tissue lipids to a high degree, especially in heart phospholipids (PL). In the second study, as the level of trans fatty acids increased in the diet, increasingly higher levels of trans fatty acids were deposited in the heart PL. As dietary trans acids increased, a decrease in total 6 fatty acids, and a decrease in the sum of 18:26 + 20:46 - 20:39² fatty acids in heart PL occurred, both criteria indicating a shift toward an increasing EFA deficiency state. Studies of 5 desaturase activity of liver microsomes in selected groups showed an increase in the conversion of 20:36 to 20:46 as the trans fatty acid level in the diet increased.

KEY WORDS: • trans fatty acids • heart phospholipids • EFA deficiency • hydrogenated fats • fatty acid desaturase

¹ Supported in part by National Institutes of Health Research Grants HL 21513, AM 04524, and by Grant HL 08214 from the Program Projects Branch, Extramural Programs, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, and by the Hormel Foundation.

² The fatty neid nomenclature used here refers to the number of carbon atoms in the chain followed by the number of unsaturated bonds with the position of the first unsaturated bond counting from the methyl end of the chain.

Manuscript received 11 September 1978.