Dietary lipids and fatty acid deposition in various calf tissues

¹ Monsanto Chemical Company, St. Louis, Missouri

Calves were fed from 5 to 85 days of age a synthetic milk that contained either 10% corn oil (ca. 50% linoleic acid) or 10% methyl myristate. The fatty acid composition of almost all tissues studied was altered to some extent by the change in dietary fatty acids. In the central nervous system, the medulla and spinal cord were resistant, but the peripheral nervous system (sympathetic trunk, brachial plexus, and vagus nerve) profoundly reflected alteration in dietary fatty acids. In peripheral nervous tissue from calves fed corn oil the proportion of linoleic acid increased from 2 to 5% to 25 to 30%. Similarly, in such tissues, myristic acid increased from 2 to 6% to 16 to 43% in methyl myristate-fed calves. Even the fatty acid composition of endocrine glands (pituitary, adrenal, and testis) reflected dietary fatty acids. The fatty acid composition of the skeletal muscle, adipose tissue, and aorta changed with different dietary fats. The greatest change occurred in the cardiac muscle and liver, in which the proportion of linoleic acid increased in the corn oil-fed calves to 50% of the total fatty acids.

Key Words: linoleic acid • methyl myristate • synthetic milk

Submitted on December 26, 1962