title: Fate of orally administered radioactive fatty acids in the late-pregnant rat.
abstract: To investigate the biodisponibility of placental transfer of fatty acids, rats pregnant for 20 days were given tracer amounts of [(14)C]palmitic (PA), oleic (OA), linoleic (LA), α-linolenic (LNA), or docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) orally and euthanized at 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, or 8.0 h thereafter. Maternal plasma radioactivity in lipids initially increased only to decline at later times. Most of the label appeared first as triacylglycerols (TAG); later, the proportion in phospholipids (PhL) increased. The percentage of label in placental lipids was also always highest shortly after administration and declined later; again, PhL increased with time. Fetal plasma radioactivity increased with time, with its highest value at 8.0 h after DHA or LNA administration. DHA initially appeared primarily in the nonesterified fatty acids (NEFA) and PA, OA, LA, and LNA as TAG followed by NEFA; in all cases, there was an increase in PhL at later times. Measurement of fatty acid concentrations allowed calculation of specific (radio)activities, and the ratio (fetal/maternal) of these in the plasmas gave an index of placental transfer activity, which was LNA > LA > DHA = OA > PA. It is proposed that a considerable proportion of most fatty acids transferred through the placenta are released into the fetal circulation in the form of TAG.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, University of Alcalá de Henares, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain; and.
authors.forename: Pilar
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: López-Luna
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University San Pablo-CEU, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Henar
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ortega-Senovilla
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University San Pablo-CEU, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Iliana
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: López-Soldado
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University San Pablo-CEU, Madrid, Spain eherrera@ceu.es.
authors.forename: Emilio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Herrera
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes; D004281:Docosahexaenoic Acids / Q000378:metabolism / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D005227:Fatty Acids / Q000378:metabolism / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D005260:Female; D005333:Fetus / Q000378:metabolism*; D019787:Linoleic Acid / Q000378:metabolism / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D019301:Oleic Acid / Q000378:metabolism / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D019308:Palmitic Acid / Q000378:metabolism / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D010743:Phospholipids / Q000378:metabolism*; D010920:Placenta / Q000378:metabolism*; D011247:Pregnancy; D051381:Rats; D014280:Triglycerides / Q000378:metabolism*; D017962:alpha-Linolenic Acid / Q000378:metabolism / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*
chemical_list: D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes; D005227:Fatty Acids; D010743:Phospholipids; D014280:Triglycerides; D017962:alpha-Linolenic Acid; D004281:Docosahexaenoic Acids; D019301:Oleic Acid; D019308:Palmitic Acid; D019787:Linoleic Acid
keywords: fatty acids; fetal triacylglycerols; placental transfer; pregnancy; rats