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Effect of Essential Fatty Acid Deficiency on Maternal, Placental, and Fetal Rat Tissues¹

Laboratory of Nuclear Medicine and Radiation Biology, University of California, 900 Veteran Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90024

Prolonged dietary deprivation is needed to produce essential fatty acid (EFA) deficiency. But lack of EFA also impairs reproductive function. Inclusion of small amounts of linoleic acid in the diet can overcome this difficulty; further, if large amounts of oleic acid are included in the diet, this competes with the utilization of 18:2 producing EFA deficiency. Using this approach, female rats were fed a fat-free diet containing 5% oleic acid w/w (with 2–3% 18:2) as the only source of fat for 4 months. They were mated and on the 21st day of gestation, the fatty acids of fetal tissues, placenta, maternal liver and plasma were analyzed and compared to controls on a stock diet. Fetuses from the experimental group were smaller and contained higher amounts of 18:1 and 20:39 indicating EFA deficiency. The 6 fatty acids in the polar lipids of placenta of the EFA-deficient group were not significantly lower than the controls, in spite of lower concentrations in the maternal plasma, suggesting a unique capacity of the placenta to concentrate 6 fatty acids, which in turn may be utilized for prostaglandin synthesis needed for inducing labor and other vascular changes in the fetus.

KEY WORDS: • essential fatty acid deficiency • maternal, placental and fetal tissues

¹ Supported by grant #1 R01 NS 13755-01A1 NTN from the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke, N.I.H.; USPHS Atherosclerosis Training Grant HL 07386-02 and by Contract DE-AM03-76-SF00012 between the Department of Energy and the University of California.

² Present address: Program in Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Texas, Health Sciences Center at Houston, School of Allied Health Sciences, Houston, TX 77025.

Manuscript received 20 November 1980.