Influence of Pregnancy and an Oxidized Lipid Diet on the Fatty Acid Composition of Blood and Tissues

Abstract

RECENTLY it has been shown that a diet which is low in vitamin E and which contains 5 per cent of oxidized lipid is capable of producing the generalized Shwartzman reaction in pregnant rats^1,2. This reaction is characterized by an episode of disseminated intravascular coagulation and, in the past, has only been produced experimentally by intravenous injection of bacterial endotoxin. The fact that the only variant in the diet which was responsible for its lethal effect was the oxidized lipid plus the fact that an increase in stainable lipid could be demonstrated in the kidney, liver, and placentas of some animals led to an investigation of the distribution of fatty acids in the blood and tissues of these animals. It seemed appropriate to compare the fatty acid compositions of tissue lipids of pregnant and non-pregnant female rats fed the oxidized lipid diet (20 per cent casein, 61 per cent corn starch, 10 per cent brewers' yeast, 4 per cent salt mixture, and 5 per cent of the ethyl esters of a molecularly distilled fraction of oxidized cod liver oil) with those of similar rats fed a pellet stock diet containing approximately 5 per cent fat.