Dietary alteration of fatty acid composition of lipid classes in mouse mammary adenocarcinoma

Abstract

The composition of total fatty acids in serially transplanted mammary adenocarcinomas of C₃H mice which were fed a fat free diet or a stock diet containing 4% fat for 8 weeks were significantly different, although fatty acid amounts were similar. The difference in composition was manifested in the triglyceride, phosphatidyl choline, and phosphatidyl ethanolamine fractions. Tumors of mice fed fat free diet had appreciable amounts of eicosatrienoic acid, whereas neoplasms of stock diet fed animals had none. In addition, higher levels of oleic acid and lower contents of linoleic acid were found in tumors from mice fed fat free diet than in those from mice fed the stock diet. Thus, mechanisms which maintained the triglyceride fatty acid composition in some tumors, such as 7288CTC hepatoma, were not observed in mouse mammary adenocarcinomas, and, therefore, were not a general phenomena associated with carcinogenesis.