Lipid composition and fatty acid pattern of the gerbil brain after exposure to perchloroethylene.

Continuous inhalation of perchloroethylene (PCE) (320 ppm) for 3 months by Mongolian gerbils resulted in an altered fatty acid pattern of a brain phospholipid. A minor decrease in the brain weight was also observed. In ethanolamine phosphoglyceride of the cerebral cortex and the hippocampus, a decrease was found among the minor fatty acids derived from linolenic acid with a corresponding increase in several fatty acids of the linoleic acid family. Linoleic acid itself was decreased. Stearic acid was also decreased in both the cerebral cortex and the hippocampus. These changes in the fatty acid pattern indicate increased desaturation. PCE might alter the desaturase activity either directly by interfering with the protein moieties of the enzyme system, or indirectly by changing the properties of the lipid matrix. The observed changes in fatty acid composition are also consistent with the current hypothesis that solvents and anesthetics perturb the lipid matrix of membranes, possibly inducing complex compensatory changes in the membrane lipid composition.