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Metabolism of 4,7,10,13,16-Docosapentaenoic Acid in the Essential Fatty Acid-deficient Rat¹

The Hormel Institute, Austin, Minnesota

Three groups of male rats of the Sprague-Dawley strain, in advanced stages of essential fatty acid deficiency, were given orally 150 mg/animal/day, of safflower oil, 50 mg/animal/day, of ethyl arachidonate and of methyl 4, 7, 10, 13, 16-docosapentaenoate, respectively. After a supplementation period of 52 days, the animals were killed by exsanguination, the livers were excised and the fatty acids of liver lipids analyzed. Growth, dermal symptoms and fatty acid composition showed that docosapentaenoic acid possessed almost the same degree of essential fatty acid activity as arachidonic acid. The fatty acid composition analyses also showed that docosapentaenoic acid was converted to arachidonic acid, and, together with other considerations, provided evidence for the degradation of unsaturated fatty acids via a concerted chain shortening-reduction process which may be represented as follows: 22:4,7,10,13,16 [20:2,5,8,11,14] 20:5,8,11,14.

Manuscript received 17 February 1964.