STUDIES ON THE EFFECT OF α-TOCOPHEROL UPON THE METABOLISM OF UNSATURATED FATTY ACID

Abstract

In order to know the α-tocopherol requirement, young rats were fed with a basal diet containing 10% of hydrogenated methyllinoleate, supplemented with 0,50,100 or 500μg per day of α-tocopherol. The result of haemolysis test after 5 weeks feeding suggested that the α-tocopherol requirement of rat was 100 to 500μg per day. Similar experiments were done, using 0-20% of methyllinoleate instead of hydrogenated methyllinoleate in the former basal diet. By increasing the methyllinoleate in the diet, haemolysis became higher than those with saturated oil diet. On the other hand, in the diets supplemented with 80 μg of α-tocopherol per day, the lowering of liver tocopherol content and increasing of the conjugated double bond content of adipose tissue were recognized in either saturated or unsaturated fats diet.