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Hypocholesterolemic Effects Induced in the Rat by Specific Types of Fatty Acid Unsaturation^1,2,

The Hormel Institute, University of Minnesota, Austin, Minnesota

The comparative effects of specific types of fatty acid unsaturation were tested in adult hypercholesterolemic rats. Test lipid mixtures were adjusted to have iodine values of 40 to 41 and this total unsaturation was supplied by oleate (0), linoleate (L₂), linolenate (L₃), arachidonate (A₄) or a concentrate of eicosapentaenoate and docosahexaenoate (P₅-H₆). Tallow was the major source of fat calories and L₂,L₃,A₄ and P₅-H₆ represented, respectively, 7.5, 5.0, 4.1 and 4.0% of the dietary fat. Plasma cholesterol levels continued to rise in the O-fed rats and the palmitate controls, whereas L₂ and L₃ inhibited further changes in the hypercholesterolemia of the rats. Only the unsaturation from the higher homologues, A₄ and P₅-H₆, exhibited significant hypocholesterolemic effects and lowered myocardial lipid levels. Changes in the distributions of polyunsaturated acids in the heart are apparently more dependent upon the available types of unsaturated acids than the actual pool size of such acids. Exogenous cholesterol, per se, promoted the onset of hypercholesterolemia in adult male Sprague-Dawley rats. Three responses of these rats to treatments with polyunsaturated fatty acids are discussed.

² Presented, in part, at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association, Cleveland, Ohio, 1962.

³ These studies were completed during the tenure of an Established Investigatorship from the American Heart Association.

⁴ Temporary address: Central Laboratory for Clinical Biochemistry, Karolinska Sjukhuset, Stockholm, Sweden.

Manuscript received 13 December 1965.