In order to study the change in molecular species of lecithins of rat cerebrum, liver and lung during pre- and postnatal development, the TMS derivatives of the corresponding diglycerides were investigated in a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry by selected ion retrieval technique. This analytical method was quite useful for determining the molecular species of diacyl and even ether type of lecithins in a short time. The molecular species studied were mainly composed of 1,2-diacyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholines and characteristic to individual organs.
1) In rat cerebrum, the molecular species found by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry were PC
30:0, PC
32:0, PC
32:1, PC
34:0, PC
34:1 PC
34:2, PC
36:0, PC
36:1, PC
36 2, PC
36:3 and PC
36:4. Of these molecular species, PC
32:0 (mainly 16:0/16:0, dipalmitoyl glycerophosphorylcholine (GPC) ), PC34:1 (mainly 16:0/18:1, palmitoyloleoyl GPC), PC
34:0 (16:0/18 0, palmitoylstearoyl GPC), PC
32:1 (mainly 16:0/16:1, palmitoylpalmitoleoyl GPC) and PC
30:0(14:0/16:0, myristoylpalmitoyl GPC) were predominant. The PC
32:0 species increased upto 44% during 6 days of life and thereafter remained nearly constant PC
34:1 and PC
34:0 decreased to 17% and 6% at above period and then increased to 30% and 14%, respectively. PC
30:0 increased until 6 days of life and then decreased. PC
32:1 was 16% at 17 days of gestation and then decreased gradually. PC
36:1 (18:0/18:1, stearoyloleoyl GPC) increased after 12 days of life.
Clarifying the v arious changes in these molecular species, subcellular fractionation was carried out. Myelin and microsome fractions of the cerebrum were obtained from 24 days old and adult rats. The major molecular species of lecithins from microsome fraction were PC32:0, PC34:1 and PC
34:0, in which particularly PC
32:0 was constituted of 34%, while in myeli n fraction PC
34:1 and PC
36:1 were predominant (26% and 19%, respectively) but PC
32:0 was minor. This result showed that PC
32:0 and PC
36:1 species were rich in cellular component and myelin, respectively. It means that PC
32:0 indicated the change in molecular species of lecithins of gray matter and PC
36:1 that of myelin (white matter) at pre- and postnatal development.
2) The change in molecular species of rat liver lecithins with development occurred particularly at perinatal period. During the prenatal period, PC32:0 (mainly 16:0/16:0), PC
34:0 (Mainly16.0/18:0), PC
34:1 (mainly 16:0/18:1) and PC
34:2 (mainly 16:0/18:2, palm itoyllinoleoyl GPC) were found as major species. At 17 days of gestation, PC32:0 was 25%and then decreased rapidly, while PC
34:1 increased between 17 and 21 days of gestation. After birth, polyunsaturated species containing C
20:4 or C
22:6 such as PC
36:4 (mainly 16:0/20:4), PC
38:4 (mainly 18:0/20:4), PC38:5 (mainly 18:1/20:4) and PC
38:6 (mainly 16:0/22:6) increased rapidly and then were nearly constant during the subsequent development in contrast to the decrease of PC
32:1, PC
34:1, PC
36:1 and PC
34:0.
Checking the effect of the mother milk on lecithin species, total lipids of mother milk were obtained from the stomach of 3 days of neonate and C
18:2,C
18:1, C
16:0,C
10:0, C
12:0and C
14:0 were found to be major components but C
18:3 and C
20:4 were minor ones. So, it was concluded that there might be no relation between milk uptake and the change in molecular species of neonatal liver lecithins.
3)
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