Forebrain fatty acid composition during development in protein-calorie and essential fatty acid deficiencies in the rat.

Rats were fed three different dietary levels of essential fatty acids (EFA), 3.0, 0.75 and 0.1 cal%, representing normal, subnormal and severely deficient dietary intakes. From the animals kept on these diets, with a protein content of 16 cal%, 3-month-old females were randomly selected to be fed diets with only 6 cal% protein but with unchanged amounts of EFA. The rats were then mated, and the effects of the diets were studied in the forebrains of their offspring. The growth and the fatty acid patterns of the ethanolamine phosphoglyceride and total phosphoglyceride fractions were studied during the first 60 days of life. Addition of protein-calorie deficiency to rats severely undernourished in EFA mitigated the biochemical signs of EFA deficiency. In EPG the developmental pattern with a decrease of 20:4 (n-6) and an increase of 22:6 (n-3) was retarded between 11 and 21 days of age in the protein-calorie deficient groups suggesting a delay in the maturation of the forebrain.