High Oleic Sunflower Oil Alters the Proportions of n‐6 and n‐3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in Young and Aging C57BL/6 Heart Tissue

Introduction Oils high in linoleic acid (LA) widely available in the U.S. food supply suppress accumulation of n‐3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). The increasing availability of high oleic oils will shift tissue PUFA away from n‐6. Little is known about the shift in highly unsaturated fatty acids in heart. Here we report the fatty acid composition in heart of neonate, juvenile and aged mice fed with high oleic (HO) fat to establish the effects on heart PUFA. Methods A mouse diet with HO sunflower was fed to one group of mice, and the mouse facility house diet rich in LA was fed to controls. Female mice were fed ad libitum for one month before breeding through pregnancy and pups were weaned to the diets of the dams. Heart was harvested on postnatal day 1, 7, 13, 21 and 1 year. Heart fatty acids were extracted using one‐step method and quantified by gas chromatography. Results No differences in food intake or body weight were observed. Arachidonic acid did not change between groups. Other n‐6 PUFA were significantly lower in HO than control group at all ages. Eicosapentaenoic acid, docosahexaenoic acid and total n‐3 PUFA were several fold higher in HO than controls. Conclution Substitution of linoleic acid with oleic acid could reduce the n‐6 PUFA but increase n‐3 PUFA in mouse heart during development and aging. Funding Source NIH R01 AT007003