Skeletal muscle lipids. III. Changes in fatty acid composition of individual phosphoglycerides in man from fetal to middle age

Abstract

The fatty acids in cardiolipin, choline phosphoglyc- MATERIALS AND METHODS eride, ethanolamine phosphoglyceride, inositol phosphoglycer- ide, and serine phosphoglyceride in the human gastrocnemius Material muscle were studied for changes between early fetal age to mid- The of the material and the procedure used for dle age. In cardiolipin, choline phosphoglyceride, and ethanol- amine phosphoglyceride, the relative total amount of the linoleic collection have been described earlier (1). The material in acid series increased considerably during the prenatal period and this study consisted of muscle samples from 10 fetuses, 10 reached maximum values during the first year of life. In inositol aged to lo yr, aged lo to 20~ phosphoglyceride and serine phosphoglyceride, only slight adults between 2O and 3o Yr Of age, and adults be- changes in the sum of fatty acids of the linoleic acid series were tween 50 and 60 yr of age. Most of the samples were ob- found. An increase in the concentration of fatty acids of the lino- lenic acid series was found in ethanolamine phosphoglyceride and serine phosphoglyceride, while only minor amounts of these fatty acids were present in choline phosphoglyceride and inositol phosphoglyceride and not at all in cardiolipin. During the peri- od studied, the amount of plasmalogen in ethanolamine phos- phoglyceride decreased slightly during the first year of life and then remained at 40%. The amount of plasmalogen increased in choline phosphoglyceride from 8% at the middle of the gesta- tional period to 15% 1 yr after birth. The individual phospho- lipids were found to have characteristic fatty acid patterns.