Metabolic effects of a diet deficient in essential fatty acids

Few data exist concerning the insulin secretion response to an essential fa tty acid deficiency. Moreover, it is not known whether the modifications in the composition of membrane fatty acids induced by an essential fatty acid deficiency play a role in the alterations in insulin secretion. We fed mal e Wistar rats for one month with a diet deficient in essential fatty acids. At the end of the dietary period the pancreatic islets were isolated and t he insulin secretion and content studied. Phospholipids were extracted from skeletal muscle and their constituent fatty acids analysed. Insulin secret ion was significantly lower in those islets from rats submitted to the diet than for the control rats when they were exposed to 5.5 and 16 mmol/l gluc ose, With the exception of the minorit 20:1 n-6, there were significant dif ferences in all the fatty acid contents between the diet deficient group an d the control group. Moreover, significant correlations were seen between i nsulin secretion and the content of some fatty acids in the muscle tissue p hospholipids. These results suggest that insulin secretion by isolated isle ts is modified by a situation of dietary essential fatty acid deficiency, a nd does not appear to be independent of the fatty acid composition of tissu e phospholipids. (C) 1998, Editrice Kurtis.