Fatty acid utilization by young Wistar rats fed a cafeteria diet.
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.
Esteve
M
M
Department de Bioquímica i Fisiologia, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain.
Rafecas
I
I
Fernández-López
J A
JA
Remesar
X
X
Alemany
M
M
D000375:Aging; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001823:Body Composition; D001835:Body Weight; D004032:Diet; D004041:Dietary Fats; D005227:Fatty Acids / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012016:Reference Values
D004041:Dietary Fats; D005227:Fatty Acids