Molecular species composition of phosphatidylcholines during the development of the avian embryo brain.

A comparative approach has been used to investigate the molecular species composition of phosphatidylcholine (PC) and its age variation throughout several developmental stages of chick and duck embryo brains. The brain PC consist of 15 major molecular species which do not undergo appreciable variation in their relative abundance either during embryonic development or between equivalent stages of maturation in the 2 avian species. In fact, a highly invariable molecular architecture of PC is shown in the developing organ. Molecular species containing saturated or monounsaturated fatty acids were dominant in all stages of development of the avian embryo brain. Among these molecular species, 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine, 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine accounted for 75-80% of the total PC.