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Fatty acid composition of late embryonic and early postnatal rat brain

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Lipids

Abstract

The fatty acid (FA) composition and distribution in a variety of phospholipids (PL) and neutral lipids (NL) at two discrete stages during the embryonic rat brain development were investigated. Over 96% of the FA were acylated into fetal brain PL at embryonic day 17 after the peak of neuronal proliferation and at embryonic day 20, one day prior to delivery. Phosphatidylcholine constituted approximately 60% of the total PL pool, phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) 30%, phosphatidylserine (PS) 6%, and phosphatidylinositol (PI) 4%. The diacylglycerols and triacylglycerols constituted 1–2% of the fetal brain lipids. α-Linolenic acid (18∶3n−3) and linoleic acid (18∶2n−6) were found in very low amounts in all fetal brain PL and NL. The percentage of the n−6 polyunsaturated FA, consisting of arachidonic acid (AA), 22∶4n−6 and 22∶5n−6, remained unchanged in all the fractions, except in Pl, in which the proportion of AA increased. The concentration of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) increased with age in all the fractions, with the bulk of accumulation accounted for by its increase in PE and, to a lesser extent, in PS. This finding suggests a “DHA accretion spurt” during the last three days of pregnancy.

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Abbreviations

AA:

arachidonic acid

DG:

diacylglycerol

DHA:

docosahexaenoic acid

E17, E20:

embryonic day 17, 20

FA:

fatty acid

LA:

linoleic acid

LNA:

α-linolenic acid

NL:

neutral lipids

PC:

phosphatidylcholine

PE:

phosphatidylethanolamine

P8:

postnatal day 8

PI:

phosphatidylinositol

PL:

phospholipid

PS:

phosphatidylserine

PUFA:

polyunsaturated FA

TG:

triacylglycerol

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurobiology, The Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100, Rehovot, Israel

    Pnina Green & Ephraim Yavin

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  1. Pnina Green
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  2. Ephraim Yavin
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Green, P., Yavin, E. Fatty acid composition of late embryonic and early postnatal rat brain. Lipids 31, 859–865 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02522981

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02522981

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