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Hepatic Fatty Acids and Acyl Desaturases in Rats: Effects of Dietary Carbonhydrate and Essential Fatty Acids^1,2,

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

For a 9-week period, six groups of weanling male rats were fed either a fat-free diet or a diet containing 10% hydrogenated coconut oil (HCO) or 10% safflower oil (SAF), respectively. Each of these diets contained either glucose or sucrose as the only carbohydrate. In the fat-free diets, the carbohydrate level was 67.3% and in the fat-supplemented diets 44.8%. Including HCO in the fat-free diet did not significantly alter hepatic 5-, 6-, and 9-desaturase activity, whereas addition of SAF significantly depressed all these activities. As compared to glucose, sucrose induced higher 9-desaturase activity in the rats on the fat-free diets. Adding HCO or SAF to the diet, simultaneously with lowering the carbohydrate level, diminished the stimulatory effect of dietary sucrose versus glucose on 9-desaturase activity. Levels of 20:4n6 and 20:3n9 in the fatty acid profiles of the liver microsomes were not influenced by dietary carbohydrate source, neither were the activities of the 5- and 6-desaturases, providing indirect evidence that dietary sucrose, as compared to glucose, did not differently affect biosynthesis of 20:4n6 and 20:3n9.

KEY WORDS: • fatty acid desaturases • dietary carbohydrate • essential fatty acid deficiency

¹ This work was supported in part by U.S. Public Health Service Grant AG-00174 from the National Institute on Aging; Grant HL-08214 from the Program Projects Branch, Extramural Programs, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute; and by the Hormel Foundation.

² Presented in part at the American Oil Chemists' Society Meeting held in Toronto, Canada, May 2–6, 1982.

³ Present address: Laboratory of Animal Nutrition, University of Ghent, 19, Heidestraat, Merelbeke 9220, Belgium.

⁴ To whom reprint requests should be addressed.

Manuscript received 8 April 1983.