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Essential Fatty Acid Deficiency and the Testis: Lipid Composition and the Effect of Preweaning Diet¹

Laboratory of Nutrition and Endocrinology, National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland

These experiments were designed to characterize the lipid changes in the rat testis as essential fatty acid (EFA) deficiency progresses and to relate these to the gross and histological state of the tissue. Also, information was sought as to why reports of testis damage in EFA deficiency have been conflicting. It was found that predepletion by feeding an EFA-deficient diet 11 days before weaning resulted in testis damage in 6 to 9 weeks compared with more than 16 weeks in rats fed the diet after weaning. Three percent of saturated fat did not accelerate EFA deficiency compared with a fat-free diet. Analyses of testes for total lipid, total phospholipid, phospholipid classes, total fatty acids and fatty acids in the choline and ethanolamine phosphatides after 6 and 9 weeks of EFA deficiency did not reveal any changes which could be correlated with the onset of histological damage. The testis appears to be particularly sensitive to EFA deficiency during the developmental period, but if maturation occurs, then a prolonged period of deficiency is required before damage appears. The results suggest that secondary effects of EFA deficiency are responsible for eventual testis degeneration.

Manuscript received 5 September 1968.