Fatty acid utilization by young Wistar rats fed a cafeteria diet

✍ Scribed by M. Esteve; I. Rafecas; J.A. Fernández-López; X. Remesar; M. Alemany

• Book ID: 104681549
• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1992
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 709 KB
• Volume: 118
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0300-8177
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00249696

✦ Synopsis

The content and accretion of fatty acids in 30, 45 and 60-day old Wistar rats fed either reference chow or a cafeteria diet has been studied, together with their actual fatty acid intake during that period. Diet had a small overall effect on the pattern of deposition of fatty acids, but the deposition of fat was much higher in cafeteria rats. The fat-rich cafeteria diet allowed the direct incorporation of most fatty acids into lipid storage, whilst chow-feeding activated lipogenesis and the deposition of a shorter chain and more saturated type of fatty acids. During the second month of the rat's life, the elongation pathway as well as delta 9-desaturase became functional, thus helping to shape the pattern of fatty acids actually accrued. The 60-day rats showed a relative impairment in the operation of delta 5-desaturase, since their lipids had a higher C20:4/C20:3 ratio than those of the diet ingested. Cafeteria-diet feeding minimized this effect since the large supply of dietary polyunsaturated fatty acids made the operation of the elongation-desaturase pathways practically unnecessary.