The effect of antioxidant deficiency on tissue lipid composition in the rat. III. Testes.

Production of testicular degeneration in the antioxidant-deficient rat resembles encephalomalacia in the chick in its dependence on essential (omega6) fatty acids and is distinct from the generalized response to all polyunsaturated fatty acids seen in nutritional muscular dystrophy in the rat. The nonessential (omega3) polyunsaturated fatty acids, however, lower the essential fatty acid content of the testicular lipids only slightly, are not themselves incorporated into this tissue to any appreciable degree and thus do not show the inhibitory effect on production of the antioxidant-deficiency sign noted in the studies on encephalomalacia. A direct relationship between the essential fatty acid content of the testes and the rate of testicular degeneration was found, but no effects of biologically available selenium and sulfur amino acids were evident. As the liver and muscle, onset of antioxidant-deficiency is characterized by a decrease in the most highly unsaturated fatty acid in the tissue (22ratio5-omega6 in this case) and a net increase in arachidonate.