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In vitro study of docosahexaenoic acid incorporation into phosphatidylcholine by enzymes of rat heart

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Abstract

Several studies have shown that in animals fed fish oils, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) is incorporated into cardiac phosphatidylcholines (PC) mainly at the expense of arachidonic acid. In this study we were interested in examining if the enzymatic system involved in the remodeling of membrane PC presented any selectivity for DHA in rat heart. The enzymes that were studied from sequential incubations carried out in parallel, were acyl-CoA synthetase (EC 6.2.1.3) and acyl-CoA:lysophosphatidylcholine acyltransferase (EC 2.3.1.23) (ACLAT). The heart preparations examined were homogenates of whole heart and of purified cultured rat ventricular myocytes.

Results showed that ACLAT tended to preferentially incorporate into PC the polyunsaturated fatty acids of the n-6 series (+30%) rather than those of the n-3 series. DHA, however, inhibited the incorporation of arachidonic acid (AA) into PC by 50% at a molar ratio (DHA/AA) of 1.5. This phenomenon seems to be related to the competitive inhibition exerted by DHA on the thio-esterification of AA, a reaction catalyzed by acyl-CoA synthetase. This inhibitory effect appears to be dependent on the kinetic properties of the acyl-CoA synthetase toward DHA which, among the fatty acids examined, exhibited the lowest apparent Km and Vmax.

It is suggested that the intracellular pool of DHA-CoA is the determinant species in altering the DHA composition of cardiac PC in animals given fish oils.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. INSERM U130, Unité de Recherches sur le Transport des Lipides, 18 Avenue Mozart, 13009, Marseille, France

    Marc Bouroudian, Gilles Nalbone, Jeannie Leonardi & Huguette Lafont

  2. INRA, Station de Recherches sur la Qualité des Aliments de l'Homme, 17 Rue Sully, 21034, Dijon, France

    Alain Grynberg

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  1. Marc Bouroudian
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  2. Gilles Nalbone
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  3. Alain Grynberg
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  4. Jeannie Leonardi
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  5. Huguette Lafont
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Bouroudian, M., Nalbone, G., Grynberg, A. et al. In vitro study of docosahexaenoic acid incorporation into phosphatidylcholine by enzymes of rat heart. Mol Cell Biochem 93, 119–128 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00226183

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00226183

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