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. 2013 Nov-Dec;89(6):403-12.
doi: 10.1016/j.plefa.2013.09.004. Epub 2013 Sep 16.

Kinetics of eicosapentaenoic acid in brain, heart and liver of conscious rats fed a high n-3 PUFA containing diet

Miki Igarashi  1 , Lisa Chang, Kaizong Ma, Stanley I Rapoport
Affiliations

Kinetics of eicosapentaenoic acid in brain, heart and liver of conscious rats fed a high n-3 PUFA containing diet

Miki Igarashi et al. Prostaglandins Leukot Essent Fatty Acids. 2013 Nov-Dec.

Abstract

Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, 20:5n-3), a precursor of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), may benefit cardiovascular and brain health. Quantifying EPA's in vivo kinetics might elucidate these effects. [1-(14)C]EPA was infused i.v. for 5min in unanesthetized male rats fed a standard EPA-DHA diet. Plasma and microwaved tissue were analyzed. Kinetic parameters were calculated using our compartmental model. At 5min, 31-48% of labeled EPA in brain and heart was oxidized, 7% in liver. EPA incorporation rates from brain and liver precursor EPA-CoA pools into lipids, mainly phospholipids, were 36 and 2529nmol/s/g×10(-4), insignificant for heart. Deacylation-reacylation half-lives were 22h and 38-128min. Conversion rates to DHA equaled 0.65 and 25.1nmol/s/g×10(-4), respectively. The low brain concentration and incorporation rate and high oxidation of EPA suggest that, if EPA has a beneficial effect in brain, it might result from its suppression of peripheral inflammation and hepatic conversion to bioactive DHA.

Keywords: ALA; ARA; Brain; DHA; DPA; EPA; Eicosapentaenoic acid; FAME; GC; HPLC; Kinetics; LA; Metabolism; PC; PUFA; Rat docosahexaenoic; TLC; Turnover; arachidonic acid; docosahexaenoic acid (22:6n-3); docosapentaenoic acid (22:5n-3); eicosapentaenoic acid (20:5n-3); fatty acid methyl ester; gas chromatography; high performance liquid chromatography; linoleic acid (18:2n-6); phosphatidylcholine; polyunsaturated fatty acid; thin layer chromatography; α-linolenic acid (18:3n-3).

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Radioactivity in total lipid (●) and aqueous (○) phases from plasma in rats during i.v. infusion of [1-14C]EPA. Values are mean±SD (n=4 for both groups).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Radioactivity of aqueous and total lipid phases (A, C, E, G), in neutral lipid classes (B, D, F, H) of plasma (A and B), brain (C and D), heart (E and F) and liver (G and H), in rats after a 5-min i.v. infusion of [1-14C]EPA. Abbreviations: TG, triacylglycerol; PL, phospholipid; CE, cholesteryl esters; Chol, cholesterol. Values are mean±SD (n=4).
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
HPLC chromatograms of fatty acid methyl esters in total lipids of plasma (A) and total esterified lipids of brain (B), heart (C) and liver (D) of rats. Four samples for each group were equally pooled to analyze HPLC profiles of FAMEs.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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