The fatty acid compositions of established fish cell lines after long-term culture in mammalian sera.

The effect of long-term culture of fish cells in mammalian serum on the phospholipid fatty acid composition was investigated. All the cell lines studied had much lower levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) than those found in intact fish tissues. In particular (n-3) PUFA were considerably depleted in the cultured cell lines, leading to very low (n-3)/(n-6) ratios in all the phospholipid classes.