Abstract
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 Δ9-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 Δ5-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.
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Esteve, M., Rafecas, I., Fernández-López, J. et al. Fatty acid utilization by young Wistar rats fed a cafeteria diet. Mol Cell Biochem 118, 67–74 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00249696
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00249696