Fatty Acid Metabolism in Rat Fed on Riboflavin Deficient Diet

Abstract

An investigation has been attempted to clarify the metabolic fate of individual fatty acid in intact animals fed on the riboflavin deficient diet. Male rats of Wistar strain weighing 60 to 70g were divided into three groups; control group, riboflavin deficient group, and pair-fed control group for riboflavin deficient group. Six of riboflavin deficient rats were killed on the 10th, 20th and 30th day respectively after the deficient diet was given. Pair feeding was carried out for 30 days for riboflavin deficient rats which were sacrificed on the 30th day of deficiency.The results showed that there were no differences in weight, total fat content and fatty acid content in the liver between the deficient group and pair-fed control group. It may be due to the low dietary fat level used in this experiment that no fatty liver was seen in riboflavin deficient group. A significant decrease in the relative proportion of C16 to the botal fatty acid and a significant increase in the relative proportion of C18-2 were seen in the liver lipids of riboflavin deficient rats when compared with pair-fed control. These suggest that the changes in the relative proportion of C16-1, C18, C18-1 and C20-4 may not be due to riboflavin deficiency per se but may be due to lower calorie intake. Changes in serum fatty acid composition were almost similar to those of liver lipids, though there were two additional fatty acids, C16-1 and C18-1 whose relative proportion decreased in riboflavin deficiency.The foregoing results suggest that the impairments of linoleic acid and palmitic acid metabolism occur in riboflavin deficiency in the case of low dietary fat level.