Physiological impairment in linoleic acid deficiency of rats and the effect of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids.

Some impairments related to membrane function were found in linoleic acid-deficient rats and the effects of fish oil feeding were investigated. In linoleic acid-deficient rats, glucose transport into erythrocytes was decreased. The concentrations of plasma free fatty acids were significantly reduced in the animals. Further, epinephrine-stimulated lipase was remarkably less sensitive to epinephrine in the deficient rat than in the corn oil-fed control rat. However, these impairments were relieved by fish oil feeding. Therefore, the impairments may be ascribed to the decrease of arachidonic acid as a polyunsaturated fatty acid in membrane phospholipids, since n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids appear to take the place of arachidonic acid.