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Dietary Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and Aging Modulate Glutathione-Related Antioxidants in Rat Liver^1,2,

Laboratoire de Nutrition et Sécurité Alimentaire, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, INRA-CRJ, 78352 JOUY-en-JOSAS Cedex, France

The effects of dietary polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) on the age-dependent changes in liver glutathione antioxidant system were investigated in male Wistar rats fed diets supplying either balanced amounts of linoleic and -linolenic acids (control) or deficient in -linolenic acid [(n-3) deficient]. The animals were studied at the age of 6 or 24 mo. Glutathione antioxidative metabolism was markedly affected by aging. Cytosolic concentration of reduced glutathione (GSH) was lower (P < 0.01), whereas that of oxidized glutathione (GSSG) as well as the GSSG:GSH ratio were greater (P < 0.001) in the 24-mo-old as compared with the 6-mo-old rats, regardless of the diet. Glutathione peroxidase activities were lower (P < 0.001) in 24-mo-old rats, though more markedly in those fed the control diet. The lipid composition of rat liver microsomal membranes was strongly modified by both diet and aging. The age-related changes mainly involved the polyunsaturated fatty acids. These results suggest that the nature of dietary PUFA and not only their degree of unsaturation affects the cellular glutathione-dependent antioxidant system and thus may modify the age-related changes in metabolic reactions.

KEY WORDS: • polyunsaturated fatty acids • -linolenic acid deficiency • aging • glutathione antioxidant system • rats

¹ Presented in part at the Winter Meeting of the Society for Free Radical Research (Europe), December 1993, Liverpool, UK [Belcadi Haloui, R., Christon, R. & Durand, G. (1993) Effects of age and dietary polyunsaturated fatty acids on cellular antioxidant system (abs. 3)].

² The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 USC section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

³ To whom correspondence and reprint requests should be addressed.

Manuscript received 24 October 1994. Revision accepted 27 July 1995.