NUTRITIONAL EFFECTS ON ESSENTIAL FATTY ACID COMPOSITION

我们的研究表明酗酒 导致长链多不饱和脂肪酸的组织水平降低 脂肪酸如花生四烯酸（AA）和二十二碳六烯酸（DHA）。 例如，在哺乳动物中存在DHA水平的选择性降低， 恒河猴的肝脏自由饮用酒精， 与肝纤维化的发展有关， 年酒精性肝患者在肝移植时 疾病还表现出DHA的选择性损失。还有一个损失， 猫和恒河猴的大脑和视网膜中的DHA 慢性酒精暴露据推测，降低的水平 这些重要的细胞膜成分的改变导致 细胞功能可能是酒精诱导的某些方面的基础， 器官损伤和预防或恢复这种减少 必需脂肪酸的含量可能对酗酒者有治疗作用。 在了解以下因素的基本作用方面取得了进展： 酒精对必需脂肪酸代谢的影响在对猫和 恒河猴暴露于慢性酒精，有一个大的 脂质过氧化标记物增加。然而， 富集长链多不饱和化合物，特别是DHA， 由18碳脂肪酸前体提供的氘表明 体内必需脂肪酸的形成和增加 增加这一论点与人们普遍认为的 酒精会抑制去饱和酶在另一行中， 调查，功能性后果的饮食缺乏n-3脂肪 酸已经在三代大鼠中进行了研究。一种新型 应用于必需脂肪酸生物学领域， 引入基于嗅觉的学习和记忆相关的 脑功能评估的任务。我们的主要发现是， 在嗅觉集合的获得上表现较差 在大脑和嗅球DHA降低的大鼠中学习 通过饮食不足。空间迷宫任务，包括水 迷宫还表明，大脑DHA水平较低的动物， 表现更差，游泳时间更长，速度更快，但 找到具有更长延迟的平台。初步迹象 在感觉能力上， 尊重嗅觉。这项工作具有重要意义， 目前缺乏DHA人类婴儿配方组合物 从而导致婴儿大脑中DHA的减少 水平和次优的发展和功能。

Our studies have demonstrated that alcohol abuse leads to a decrease in tissue levels of long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids like arachidonate(AA) and docosahexaenoate (DHA). For example, there is a selective decrease in the level of DHA in the livers of rhesus monkeys given alcohol on an ad libitum basis that was associated with the development of liver fibrosis after three years. Patients at the time of liver translplant with Alcoholic Liver Disease also showed a selective loss of DHA. There is also a loss of DHA in the brains and retinas of cats and rhesus monkeys after chronic alcohol exposure. It is hypothesized that the lowered level of these important cell membrane constituents leads to alterations in cellular function that may underlie some aspects of alcohol-induced organ injuries and that prevention or restoration of this decrement in essential fatty acids may be of therapeutic benefit to alcoholics. Progress has been made in understanding the underlying actions of alcohol on essential fatty acid metabolism. In studies of cats and rhesus monkeys exposed to chronic alcohol, there was a large increase in markers of lipid peroxidation. However, an increase in enrichment of long chain polyunsaturates, especially DHA, with deuterium supplied by the 18-carbon fatty acid precursors indicated that essential fatty acid formation and accretion in vivo was increased. This contention is opposite to the commonly held notion that alcohol inhibits desaturase enzymes. In a separate line of inquiry, the functional consequences of diets deficient in n-3 fatty acids have been studied in rats over three generations. A novel application to the field of essential fatty acid biology was made with the introduction of olfactory-based learning and memory-related tasks for brain function assessment. Our principal findings are that there is a poorer performance in the acquisition of olfactory set learning in rats where brain and olfactory bulb DHA was lowered thru dietary insufficiency. Spatial maze tasks including the water maze also indicated that animals with lower levels of brain DHA performed more poorly, swimming longer and at a higher rate, but finding the platform with a longer latency. Preliminary indications are that there is little or no difference in sensory capability with respect to olfaction. This work has important implications for human infant formula composition as it is currently devoid of DHA in North America thus leading to a decrease in infant brain DHA levels and suboptimal development and function.