Sixteen horses (2 to 4 yr; 357 to 439 kg BW) were utilized in a randomized complete block design for a 140 d trial to determine effect of omega 3 PUFAs (n-3) supplementation on markers of inflammation in young horses in training. Horses were fed treatments consisting of a control diet (n = 8) fed at 1% BW (as fed) or a treatment diet (n = 8) of concentrate fed at 0.75% BW (as fed) and 350 g of a marine n-3 supplement formulated to provide 15 g of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and 20 g of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Body weight and body condition scores (BCS) were obtained biweekly and concentrate adjusted accordingly. Horses were exercised 5 d/wk by students in an equine training course. Type of activity and duration was monitored, along with heart rate to quantify workload. Exercise protocol was divided into 2 phases: phase I (d 0 to110) consisted of ground work and early training under saddle, and phase II (d 111 to 140) consisted of advance maneuvers and moderate workload. Synovial fluid was obtained from right radial carpal joint by arthrocentesis every 28 d and was analyzed for white blood cell count (WBC), total protein (TP), and specific gravity (SG). Serum concentrations of carboxypeptide type II collagen (CPII) and chondroitin sulfate 846 (CS-846) were analyzed by ELISA kits. Dietary treatment did not affect synovial WBC, TP, or SG. Also, concentrations of WBC and TP also did not differ over time. SG increased over time (P < 0.001) as horses moved from phase I to phase II of the trial. Dietary treatment did not influence concentrations of CPII or CS-846. CS-846 tended to increase over time (P = 0.09) and CPII concentrations also increased (P < 0.001) in response to changes in exercise. Furthermore, all horses gained BW and BCS throughout the trial (P < 0.001), but values were not influenced by treatment. This data indicates further studies are needed to determine the efficacy of n-3 supplementation as a preventative measure against development of osteoarthritis.

These studies were designed to evaluate the relationships that exist between residual feed intake, parity, rate of return to estrous cyclicity and nonesterified fatty acid (NEFA) concentrations, as well as changes in both body weight (BW) and body condition score (BCS) during the prepartum and postpartum time periods in Brahman females. Residual feed intake classification was evaluated for all females during the course of 70-d trials conducted prior to these experiments. Heifers (n = 30) and cows (n = 63) were evaluated for BW and BCS, as well as by collection of weekly blood samples beginning five weeks prior to calving. Blood serum samples were utilized to assay for NEFA concentrations by enzymatic colorimetry both pre- and postpartum. Multiparous females (n = 44) were sampled weekly for five weeks following parturition. Beginning 28d postpartum, weekly blood samples were collected and assayed for progesterone concentrations by radioimmunoassay to determine return to estrous cyclicity. Following calving, females were exposed to epididymectomized bulls fitted with chin-ball markers to aid in estrus detection. After detection, estrus females were evaluated for presence of a corpus luteum by trans-rectal ultrasonography. Prepartum, it was found that inefficient females had a greater BCS than efficient females (P < 0.05), significant BW changes occurred during the sampling period (P < 0.05) and moderate to low correlations existed between BW and BCS. Additionally, it was found that the interaction between RFI x parity had a significant affect upon NEFA concentrations, BW and BCS (P < 0.05). During the postpartum period it was found that efficient females were lower in both BW and BCS (P < 0.05), no change occurred over time in NEFA concentrations (P > 0.1) and a greater pregnancy rate was achieved in efficient females, as well as in females that returned to estrous cyclicity rapidly (< 90d) following calving.

The effects of partial or total replacement of fish oil with linseed oil or corn oil or both in diets of cobia were valuated. Basal diet was isonitrogenous and isoenergetic and contained 15% crude lipid. Results of the 8-wk feeding trial show that fish fed diet containing only fish oil grew significant better than fish fed other replacement diets (replacement level 33-100%). Fish fed diet containing only plant oil grew the least and had the lowest liver weight, condition factor and body lipid concentration. Oil replacement did not significantly change liver mRNA gene expression of fatty acid desaturase and elongase. As levels of replacement increased, tissue PUFA increased while HUFA decreased. Fish fed all fish oil diet had the highest respiratory burst activities of head kidney phagocytes. Serum of the fish fed the all vegetable oil diets had the lowest lysozyme activities. Fish fed all linseed oil diet had the highest SOD activities. Serum alternative complement pathway activity, aspartate transaminase and alanine transaminase activity did not vary among treatments. The results show that cobia juveniles had relatively high need for fish oil in their diets, and the ability to synthesized HUFA from PUFA was limited. Partial or total replacement (33-100%) of fish oil with linseed oil or corn oil or both were detrimental to fish growth and immune responses.

This research investigated the changes in body adipocyte size and density as well as parameters relating to adipogenesis in growing cobia, Rachycentron canadum. The cobia from a same batch were sampled 5 , 7 , 9 , 13 , 17 , 21 , 26 and 31 weeks after hatching, Liver activities of fatty acid synthase, (FAS), mailc enzyme (ME), and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH) as well as serum total triacylglycerol (TG), total cholesterol (TC), phospholipid (PL), non-esterified fatty acid (NEFA) were assayed. Adipocyte abundance and size spectrum in liver, ventral muscle and dorsal muscle were determined. The cobia attained an average weight of 13.6 ¡Ó 0.5 g at week 5, and were cultured in nursery outdoor ponds until an average weight 87.5 ¡Ó 3.8 g when moved to open ocean cages. They grew to an average weight 1690.8 ¡Ó 106.6 g at week 31. The crude lipid content in liver, ventral and dorsal muscle increased significantly with fish age, and were 36.1 ¡Ó 3.2 g, 14.8 ¡Ó 0.2g, 4.6 ¡Ó 0.0 g at week 31. No significant change was found in hepatic FAS activity. Hepatic ME activity increased significantly after the fish were stocked in the cages. Whilr hepatic ME activity reduced with age, TG and PL were both increased significantly with age. While adipocyte diameter in liver showed a decreasing trend as the fish grew its abundance increased significantly at week 13 and maintained between 3070¡ã3356 x 104 cell/g tissue during week 17-31. Similarly, adipocyte abundance in ventral muscle increased significantly at week 13, and maintained between 255¡ã269 x 104 cell/g tissue afterwards. There was no significant change in size of ventral muscle adipocyte as fish grew. These results indicate that the adipocyte hyperplasia occurred during week 7- 13, when body weight was 100- 400 g. Adipocyte hypertrophy was observed when the fish reached week 31, there was a sign of adipocyte hypertrophy in liver when the fish were at the last phase of nursery outdoor ponds before being moved to the offshore cages.

A study was performed to investigate the effect of diets rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids and other related nutrients, in the effort to improve skin and hair coat conditions in canines. The study included 24 dogs fed a baseline diet (Ol’Roy®), with an acclimation period of 12 weeks (Phase I). Nine female beagles and 15 male hound mixed-bred dogs were used. For the next 12 weeks (Phase II) the dogs were randomly divided into three groups and fed one of three specially formulated complete and balanced diets. Differences among the three diets were as follows: Diet A contained lower but adequate amounts of dietary zinc and linoleic acid than Diet B. Diet C was similar to Diet B with respect to zinc but contained less linoleic acid and more alpha-linolenic acid. In the beginning, a preliminary study assessing skin lipids showed that hair is a suitable material to analyze. This study lead to the subsequent investigation, using plucked and shed hair samples obtained on weeks 3, 7, and 11 (Phase I) and again on weeks 1, 3, 7, and 11 (Phase II). One objective of this research was to investigate the dietary effects of the combination of linoleic acid in combination with zinc on canine sebum lipids during a 12 week diet phase. Another objective was to investigate if any correlation existed between the hair cycle anagen and telogen phase of the hair follicle and the lipid constituents present in the sebum during the 12 week acclimation phase and the 12 week feeding trial. Two hypotheses were tested. First, the lipid content of hair can be altered by fat and fatty acid composition of the diet. Second, the modification of dietary fat and polyunsaturated fatty acids lead to changes in hair lipids that may be related to improved skin and hair coat scores. Over the 12 week feeding period of Phase II, test results revealed statistically significant increases in both CE and CE/WD, and a prolonged growth of hair follicles in the anagen phase of diet B dogs, which are both consistent with improved skin and hair coat scores.

To examine how dietary n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids affect Th2 cell development, female C57BL/6 mice were fed a washout corn oil (CO) diet for 1 wk followed by 2 wk of either the same CO diet or a fish oil (FO) diet. CD4+ T cells were isolated from spleens and cultured under both neutral (anti-CD3 and phorbol myristate acetate (PMA)) and Th2 polarizing conditions (anti-CD3 and PMA, in presence of rIL-4, rIL-2, and anti-IFN-γ) in the presence of homologous mouse serum (HMS) or fetal bovine serum (FBS) for 2 d. Dietary n-3 PUFA significantly enhanced Th2 cell development and suppressed Th1 development under neutral conditions as assessed by intracellular cytokine staining for IL-4 and IFN-γ as the two prototypic Th2 and Th1 cytokines, respectively. However, under Th2 polarizing conditions, while the suppression of Th1 cells was maintained in FO-fed mice, no dietary effect was observed in Th2 cells. Dietary FO increased the Th2/Th1 ratio under both neutral and Th2 polarizing conditions with HMS in the cultures. To examine the effect of dietary n-3 PUFA on Th1 development, DO11.10 Rag2-/- mice expressing transgenic T cell receptor specific for ovalbumin (OVA) peptide were used. CD4+ T cells were isolated from spleens and lymph nodes and stimulated with ovalbumin (OVA) peptide and irradiated BALB/c splenocytes in the presence of rIL-12, anti-IL-4, and rIL-2 in HMS for 2d. Cells were expanded for another 3 d in the presence of rIL-2 and rIL-12. Dietary n-3 PUFA did not affect Th1 differentiation as assessed by the proportion of IFN-γ+, IL-4- T cells in the cultures, but suppressed rIL-2 induced expansion. The suppressed expansion was due to suppressed proliferation (p<0.05). In vivo expansion of antigen-specific T cells was visualized by flow cytometric analysis of CFSE-positive transgenic T cells. Dietary n-3 PUFA did not appear to affect antigen-induced CD4+ T cell cycle progression in vivo. Overall, these results suggest dietary n-3 PUFA have no direct effect on Th2 cell development but do directly suppress Th1 cell development following both mitogenic and antigenic stimulation in vitro.

Heart-type fatty acid binding protein (H-FABP) is a major fatty acid binding factor in skeletal muscles. Genetic lack of H-FABP severely impairs the esterification and oxidation of exogenous fatty acids in soleus muscles isolated from chow-fed mice (CHOW-solei) and high fat diet-fed mice (HFD-solei), and prevents the HFD-induced accumulation of muscle triglycerides. Here, we examined the impact of H-FABP deficiency on the relationship between fatty acid utilization and glucose oxidation. Glucose oxidation was measured in isolated soleus muscles in the presence or absence of 1 mM palmitate (simple protocol) or in the absence of fatty acid after preincubation with 1 mM palmitate (complex protocol). With the simple protocol, the mutation slightly reduced glucose oxidation in CHOW-muscles, but markedly increased it in HFDmuscles; unexpectedly, this pattern was not altered by the addition of palmitate, which reduced glucose oxidation in both CHOW- and HFD-solei irrespective of the mutation. In the complex protocol, the mutation first inhibited the synthesis and accumulation of triglycerides and then their mobilization; with this protocol, the mutation increased glucose oxidation in both CHOW- and HFD-solei. We conclude: (i) H-FABP mediates a non-acute inhibition of muscle glucose oxidation by fatty acids, likely by enabling both the accumulation and mobilidoes not mediate the acute inhibitory effect of extracellular fatty acids on muscle glucose oxidation; (iii) H-FABP affects muscle glucose oxidation in opposing ways, with inhibition prevailing at high muscle triglyceride contents.zation of a critical mass of muscle triglycerides; (ii) H-FABP

This research studied the dietary effect of supplemental plant oils on growth, adiposity and lipid metabolism-related enzyme activity of juvenile cobia. The isonitrogenous and isoenergetic basal diet contained 15% crude lipid, 6% fish oil and 9% supplemental oils. The supplemental oils were varied among 5 dietary treatments, including fish oil (HUFA, n-3)(FO), perilla oil (18:3 n-3)(PE), safflower oil (18:2 n-6)(SA), olive oil (18:1 n-9)(OL), and palm oil (16:0)(PA). Results of the 10-wk feeding trial show that fish fed diet containing palm oil had the highest final weight, and was significant higher than fish fed SA diet. SA group had highest crude lipid concentration. OL group had the least crude protein concentration. PA group had the highest ash concentration. FO group had the highest crude protein and moisture content, the least crude lipid and ash content. Adipocyte density in various, tissues did not vary with time, except the ventral fat depot. Tissue adipocyte density of FO group was the least. Adipocyte density of PE group was higher than FO group, and its mean adipcoyte diameter in dorsal muscle was great than the other groups. Fatty acid synthase (FAS), as measured by specific activity, decreased with times in the PE group. Adipocyte density of SA group the highest of all groups, and its mean adipocyte diameter in dorsal muscle was also the greatest. Adipocyte density in the ventral fat depot of OL group was the highest, and its mean diameter in dorsal muscle was the smallest. Adipocyte density of PA group was only slightly lower than SA group. The tissue acid composition of the cobia was influenced by the supplemental plant oils. Tissue HUFA concentration and n-3/n-6 ratio was decreased, MUFA, PUFA and SAF composition was increased when the plant oils were supplemented. The results show that the supplementation of the plant oils could affect the density , size and tissue distribution of adipocytes, fatty acid synthesis pathway in the liver and tissue fatty acid composition. Feeding the cobia diet containing supplemental safflower or palm oil significantly increased density and cell size of adipocytes in the tissue of the cobia.

The present study cloned successfully two lipid-metabolism genes, lipoprotein lipase (LPL) and fatty acid binding protein (FABPs) from cobia and studied the mRNA expressions of the two genes and their upstream gene PPARs when the cobia were fed diets containing 15% lipid. Among the lipids, 6% was fish oil and the remaining 9% were supplemented by fish oil (FO, rich in n-3 HUFA), perilla oil (PE, rich in 18:2 n-6), safflower oil (SA, rich in 18:2 n-6), olive oil (OL, rich in 18:1 n-9) or palm oil (PA, rich in 16:0). The whole sequences of LPL, liver-FABP (L-FABP) and muscle-FABP (M-FABP) encode 520, 126 and 133 amino acids, respectively. RT-PCR and real time PCR analyses based on these gene sequences show that the mRNA expressions of L-FABP and M-FABP in the tissue of the cobia were diet-specific. The mRNA expression of LPL, on the other hand, did not respond to the treatments, except in visceral fat depot. Linear regression analysis shows that the mRNA expression of LPL in the liver and muscle was positively (P<0.05) related to dietary fatty acids and ther concentration, but that in the visceral fat depot was negatively related. The mRNA expression of FABPs was also positively correlated with dietary fatty acid levels. Among all fatty acids, the levels of C14:0, C20:1 n-9, EPA and DHA were positively correlated with the mRNA expression of PPAR£^and also with FABPs mRNA expression in the visceral fat depot and LPL mRNA expression in the muscle. Thus, LPL, L-FABP and M-FABP mRNA expression of the cobia were highly influenced by the kind and amount of dietary fatty acids. The role of PPARs was not clearly demonstrated.

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2009. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains ix, 124 p. : ill. Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references.