The effect of dietary erucic acid on cardiac triglycerides and free fatty acid levels in rats.

Abstract

AbstractMale Sprague‐Dawley rats, 3 weeks of age, were fed semisynthetic diets containing test oils at 20% by weight for 3 days, 1 week, and 16 weeks. The test oils contained up to 22.3% erucic acid. Growth retardation was evident in rats fed rapeseed oil high in erucic acid, and soybean oil and Tower rapeseed oil diets containing about 5% erucic acid. Cardiac triglyceride accumulation was found in rats fed diets containing about 5% erucic acid but not in rats fed Tower rapeseed oil which contains 0.2% of this acid. The cardiac free fatty acid levels were low, 50–100 μg/g of wet heart tissue, and were not affected by feeding diets containing about 5% erucic acid. Feeding a diet containing a high erucic acid rapeseed oil did result in higher free fatty acid levels but only at 3 days and 1 week; the level at 16 weeks was similar to the other oils. The fatty acid analysis of cardiac triglycerides and free fatty acids showed high percentages of erucic acid at 3 days and 1 week; at 16 weeks these levels had declined significantly. The results indicate that the accumulated erucic and eicosenoic acids, at 3 days and 1 week, accounted for the increase in cardiac free fatty acids when rats were fed the high erucic acid rapeseed oil. There appears to be no evidence that the early cardiac triglyceride or free fatty acid accumulation is related to the formation of the long term myocardial lesions.