Influence of dietary thermally oxidized soybean oil on the oxidative status of rats of different ages.

Young and aging rats were fed for different periods (10, 90, 180 and 365 days) diets containing 15% of fresh or heated soybean oil. Thiobarbituric reactive substances (TBA-RS), lipofuscin, superoxide dismutase (SOD), vitamin A, vitamin E and microsomal and mitochondrial fatty acids in liver, brain and serum were measured. Heated oil diets induced significant increase of TBA-RS levels in liver, with earlier effects in aging rats and affected SOD activity in aging rats only after a long period of feeding.

Morphological and biochemical changes in myelin subfractions of developing rats fed microbial lipids.

Morphological, biochemical, and physicochemical studies of myelin subfractions were undertaken on the progeny of Sprague-Dawley rats fed diets containing lipids either extracted from yeasts grown on n-alkanes or from margarine. Myelin subfractions obtained from pooled brain homogenates of littermates by sucrose density gradient centrifugation at 7, 14, and 21 days postnatally were subjected to electron microscopy, sodium dodecylsulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and assayed for 2', 3' cyclic nucleotide 3'-phosphohydrolase activity (CNPase; EC 3.1.

Effects of dietary phospholipids and odd-chain fatty acids on the behavioural maturation of mice.

Five groups of female mice were fed from day 14 of pregnancy and throughout lactation on synthetic diets differing only in the lipid component, which constituted 10% of the diet and was derived from (a) the lipid fraction extracted from yeast grown on n-alkanes, (b) commercial soya lecithin, (c) fatty acids isolated from yeast lipids (off-chain fatty acids), (d) lipids extracted from yeast grown on glucose or (e) margarine (8%), corn oil (1%) and the unsaponifiable fraction (1%) from yeast grown on n-alkanes. A control diet (9% margarine and 1% corn oil) was fed to a sixth group of pregnant mice and to the offspring of all the groups from weaning to 60 days after birth. A battery of behavioural tests was performed on the offspring of the six groups between days 1 and 16 after birth (reflex activities), between days 2 and 21 (locomotor activity) and at 60 days of age (avoidance learning).

Evaluation of protein quality: comparison of single-point and multi-point assays.

The quality of different protein sources having a wide spectrum of potential biological values has been assessed with multi-point and singly-point assays on growing Sprague-Dawley rats weighing 60 g. Values obtained with multi-point assays, expressed goth as absolute and relative values, were well correlated irrespective of the response parameter, i.e.

[Fatty acids with an odd number of carbon atoms: metabolic and nutritional aspects].

Odd-numbered fatty acids are present in natural sources of animal or vegetable origin. Their concentration is generally not higher than 5% of the total fatty acids. In some cases, however, like in the mullet or Euglena gracilis, the value reaches 20% of the total fatty acids.