THE EFFECT OF TRACE-ELEMENT DEFICIENCY (IRON, COPPER, ZINC, MANGANESE, AND SELENIUM) ON HEPATIC FATTY-ACID COMPOSITION IN THE RAT

The present study has been performed to investigate comparatively the effect of iron-, copper-, manganese-, selenium-, and zinc deficiency o n fatty acid metabolism in rats. The experiment included 7 groups of 1 2 rats each (control group, iron-deficient group, copper-deficient gro up, manganese-deficient group, selenium-deficient group, zinc-deficien t group, and a control group pair-fed to zinc-deficient group). In ord er to asses the fatty acid metabolism, fatty acid composition of liver total lipids was determined. The most pronounced changes of fatty aci d composition compared with control rats occurred in iron- and copper- deficient rats. The changes in iron-deficient rats indicate impaired d esaturation of saturated fatty acids and linoleic acid by Delta 9, Del ta 6 and Delta 5 desaturase. The changes in copper-deficient rats indi cate impaired Delta 9 desaturation of saturated fatty acids. Manganese -deficient rats had slightly decreased levels of mono-unsaturated fatt y acids indicating also decreased Delta 9 desaturation. Selenium defic iency did not influence the fatty acid composition of liver total lipi ds. The fatty acid composition of both zinc-deficient rats and pair-fe d control rats was quite different from ad libitum control rats demons trating the effect of low food intake. In comparison with pair-fed con trol rats, zinc-deficient rats had increased levels of (n - 3) poly-un saturated fatty acids whereas neither Delta 5 and Delta 6 desaturation nor Delta 9 desaturation was influenced by zinc deficiency. In conclu sion, the data of the study show that several trace elements influence fatty acid metabolism.