Uptake of Radiolabelled α-Linolenic, Arachidonic and Oleic Acid in Tissues of Normal and Essential Fatty Acid-Deficient Rats - an Autoradiographic Study

• Published in: Annals of nutrition and metabolism 1985, Vol.29 (2), p.65-75
• Main Authors: Becker, Wulf, Mohammed, Abdulmalik, Slanina, Premysl
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: alpha-Linolenic Acid; Animals; Arachidonic Acid; Arachidonic Acids - metabolism; Autoradiography; Biological and medical sciences; Carbon Radioisotopes; Diet; Fatty Acids, Essential - deficiency; Fatty Acids, Unsaturated - metabolism; Linolenic Acids - metabolism; Male; Medical sciences; Metabolic diseases; Oleic Acids - metabolism; Other nutritional diseases (malnutrition, nutritional and vitamin deficiencies...); Rats; Rats, Inbred Strains; Tissue Distribution
• ISSN: 0250-6807; 1421-9697
• DOI: 10.1159/000176963

Rats fed diets with a low (0.3% of total energy) or normal (3%) essential fatty acid (EFA) content were injected intravenously with a single dose of ¹⁴C-labelled α-linolenic, arachidonic or oleic acid and the distribution of radioactivity in the tissues was compared 5 min, 1 h and 18 h after the application using whole-body autoradiography. The highest levels of labelling with all fatty acids were observed in the liver, brown fat and adrenal cortex. Specific for arachidonic acid was a high and consistent concentration of radioactivity in the myocardium at all times and for oleic acid in the white fat after 18 h. The tissue uptake of arachidonic acid was similar in both dietary groups, whereas a higher accumulation of alinolenic was seen in most of the tissues in the low EFA group after 18 h compared to the normal EFA group. The uptake of oleic acid was higher in some tissues in the low EFA than in the normal EFA group after 1 h, but after 18 h these differences had disappeared almost completely.