Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) comprise a significant portion of mammalian brain tissue, and are involved in neural signalling and cellular homeostasis. One brain PUFA, arachidonic acid, represents an attractive target for manipulation, with evidence suggesting it plays a role in the pathology of several neurological diseases. In this study, we fed rats a 15-week diet of an n-3 PUFA adequate or deprived diet, and then injected 3H arachidonic acid into the right lateral ventricle and measured its rate of loss over time. The half-life was 44 and 46 days for the n-3 PUFA adequate and deprived dietary groups, respectively. We compared the rate of loss with a predicted rate of loss (~45 days). We concluded that plasma unesterified AA is quantitatively a major source of brain phospholipid AA. Furthermore, we demonstrated selective regulation of brain PUFA by showing AA, unlike DHA, is not conserved in n-3 PUFA deprivation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/18316 |
| Date | 19 January 2010 |
| Creators | Green, Joshua |
| Contributors | Bazinet, Richard |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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