Abstract
A restricted maternal dietary intake (40% of ad libitum intake) is known to cause myelin deficit that is accompanied by decreased amounts of individual phospholipids and sphingolipids in brain myelin of suckling rats. This communication reports the effects of the same nutritional stress on the fatty acid composition of brain myelin lipids. In myelin of 19-day-old normally fed rats, palmitate (16∶0), stearate (18∶0) and oleate (18∶1) accounted for 80–90% of all fatty acids in phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylserine. Maternal dietary restriction resulted in deficits of total fatty acid content, but did not affect the proportional distribution of individual fatty acids among phospholipids. By contrast, longer chain (22- and 24-carbon) fatty acids accounted for more than half the fatty acid content of myelin cerebroside and sulfatide from the 19-day-old control rat pups. In undernourished rats of that age, proportions of lignocerate (24∶0) and nervonate (24∶1) in cerebroside and sulfatide were 40–50% lower than those in control rats. This, together with higher proportions of 16∶0, 18∶0 and 18∶1 and a higher ratio of C16−C20 to C22−C24 in under-nourished than in control rats, suggests an impairment in fatty acid chain elongation. Ten days of nutritional rehabilitation failed to restore the fatty acid imbalances; however, after an additional 5 days of ad libitum feeding, the experimental and control values were similar. The undernutrition results in hypomyelination, which is characterized by a proportional decrease in lignoceric and nervonic acids of sphingolipids.
Similar content being viewed by others
Abbreviations
- PC:
-
phosphatidylcholine
- PE:
-
phosphatidylethanolamine
- PS:
-
phosphatidylserine
- Cr:
-
cerebroside
- Su:
-
sulfatide
References
Dobbing, J. (1964)Proc. Roy. Soc. Biol. 159, 503–509.
Dobbing, J., and Widdowson, E.M. (1965)Brain 88, 357–366.
Krigman, M.R., and Hogan, E.L. (1976)Brain Res. 107, 239–255.
Simons, S.D., and Johnston, P.V. (1976)J. Neurochem. 27, 63–69.
Yusuf, H.K.M., Haque, Z., and Mozaffar, Z. (1981)J. Neurochem. 36, 924–930.
Wiggins, R.C. (1982)Brain Res. Rev. 4, 151–175.
Fuller, G.N., Johnston, D.A., and Wiggins, R.C. (1984)Brain Res. 290, 195–198.
Vitiello, R., Di Benedetta, C., and Gombos, G. (1985)Biochem. Soc. Trans. 13, 758–759.
Grigor, M.R., Allan, J.E., Carrington, J.M., Carne, A., Geursen, A., Young, D., Thompson, M.P., Haynes, E.B., and Coleman, R.A. (1987)J. Nutr. 117, 1247–1258.
Altman, J., Das, G.D., Sudarshan, K., and Anderson, J.B. (1971)Develop. Psychobiol. 4, 55–70.
Yeh, Y.-Y. (1988)J. Neurosci. Res. 19, 357–363.
O'Brien, J.S., and Sampson, E.L. (1964)J. Lipid Res. 6, 545–551.
Fishman, M.A., Madyastha, P., and Prensky, A.L. (1971)Lipids 6, 458–465.
Svennerholm, L. (1968)J. Lipid Res. 9, 570–579.
Svennerholm, L., and Stallberg-Stenhagen, S. (1968)J. Lipid Res. 9, 215–225.
Srinivasa Rao, P. (1979)Nutr. Metabol. 23, 136–144.
Davison, A.N., and Dobbing, J. (1966)Br. Med. Bull. 22, 40–44.
Wiggins, R.C., Miller, S.L., Benjamins, J.A., Krigman, M.R., and Morell, P. (1976)Brain Res. 107, 257–273.
Yeh, Y-Y., Zee, P., Owen, G.L., and Walker, E. (1982)J. Nutr. 112, 1162–1168.
Norton, W.T., and Poduslo, S.E. (1973)J. Neurochem. 21, 749–757.
Folch, J., Lees, M., and Sloan-Stanley, G.H. (1957)J. Biol. Chem. 226, 497–509.
Norton, W.T., and Autilio, L.A. (1966)J. Neurochem. 13, 213–222.
Yeh, Y-Y. (1984)J. Neurosci. Res. 11, 383–394.
Morrison, W.R., and Smith, L.M. (1964)J. Lipid Res. 5, 600–608.
Tinoco, J., Shannon, A., Miljanich, P., Lyman, R.L., and Okey, R. (1962)Anal. Biochem. 3, 514–520.
Norton, W.T., and Poduslo, S.E. (1973)J. Neurochem. 21, 759–773.
Crawford, C.G., and Wells, M.A. (1979)Lipids 14, 757–762.
Srinivasa Rao, P. (1977)Lipids 12, 335–339.
Wells, M.A., and Dittmer, J.C. (1967)Biochemistry 6, 3169–3175.
Wiggins, R.C., and Fuller, G.N. (1978)J. Neurochem. 30, 1231–1237.
Dhopeshwarker, G.A., Subramann, C., and Mead, F. (1973)Biochim. Biophys. Acta 296, 257–264.
Murad, S., and Kishimoto, Y. (1978)Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 185, 300–306.
Aeberhard, E., and Menkes, J.H. (1968)J. Biol. Chem. 243, 3834–3840.
Bourre, J.M., Paturneau-Jouas, M.Y., Dandu, O.L., and Baumann, N.A. (1977)Eur. J. Biochem. 72, 41–47.
Kishimoto, Y., and Radin, N.S. (1959)J. Lipid Res. 1, 79–82.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
About this article
Cite this article
Yeh, YY. Long chain fatty acid deficits in brain myelin sphingolipids of undernourished rat pups. Lipids 23, 1114–1118 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02535275
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02535275