Effect of vitamin E deficiency on the lipid class and fatty acid composition of rat brain gray and white matter.

Three-week old male Sprague-Dawley rats were placed on a control or vitamin E-deficient diet for 9 months. The total lipid and cholesterol contents of brain gray and white matter areas in the vitamin E-deficient group did not differ from controls. The concentration of cerebrosides was lower in white matter but higher in gray matter of deficient animals. However, sulfatide was significantly (P less than 0.001) higher in white and gray matter of deficient animals compared with controls. Lysolecithin was not found in vitamin E-deficient gray matter but was present in control gray matter lipids. No marked differences were found in the concentrations or relative amounts of sphingomyelin, phosphatidyl choline, phosphatidyl ethanolamine, phosphatidyl serine, or phosphatidyl inositol in the phospholipids of gray or white matter of vitamin E-deficient rats as compared to controls. In addition, no remarkable differences were found in the fatty acid composition of total lipid extracts of gray or white matter from vitamin E-deficient rats when compared with controls.