Capacity of the European eel (Anguilla anguilla) to elongate and desaturate dietary linoleic acid.

The ability of eels (Anguilla anguilla) to further desaturate and chain elongate linoleic acid, 18:2n-6, was studied by feeding diets containing either corn oil or a fish oil to groups of elvers for 12 wk and analyzing proportions of fatty acids in tissue lipids. Over the 12-wk period elvers given both dietary treatments increased in weight by fourfold. The proportion of arachidonic acid, 20:4n-6, present in polar lipids of elvers fed the diet containing corn oil increased from an initial value of 5% by weight to 12% by weight; the corresponding value for elvers given a diet containing fish oil, with little linoleic acid in it, was less than 4% by weight. The capacity of this fish to modify dietary linoleic acid metabolically was confirmed by examining the metabolic fate of radioactive carbon after giving [1-14C]linoleic acid orally to eels. Seven days after administration of the linoleic acid approximately 10% of the radioactivity recovered in liver fatty acids was present in trienes and tetraenes with about 4% occurring in arachidonic acid. Compositional analyses from the feeding experiment also indicated that dietary docosaenoic acid, 22:1n-11, is preferentially oxidized by eels.