Lipid metabolism in mature male mice may be different from immature male mice, but the relationship of lipid metabolism, especially n-6 fatty acid metabolism, and sexual maturation is not clearly established. This study was carried out to elucidate whether sexual maturation may affect the metabolism of functional n-6 fatty acids of lipid components by investigating the composition of fatty acids in the longissimus muscle tissues of mature and immature male mice with GC and analyzing the expression of genes and proteins for synthesis of n-6 fatty acids with real-time PCR and western blotting, respectively. Mature male mice showed significantly higher testosterone level in the sera. Similarly, n-6 fatty acids, levels of linoleic acid (LA 18:2n-6) and total n-6 PUFA (Polyunsaturated fatty acids) were increased, but the levels of γ-linolenic acid (GLA; 18:3n-6), dihomo-γ -linolenic acid (DGLA; 20:3n-6) and arachidonic acid (AA; 20:4 n-6) were decreased in the mature male mice. mRNA levels of Δ 5-desaturase (FASD1) and elongase (ELOVL5) genes related to n-6 fatty acid metabolism increased. However, the level of FADS1 protein only increased in mature male mice. In conclusion, this study suggested that sexual maturation of male mice affected n-6 fatty acid metabolism by stimulating the expression of enzyme FADS1 of n-6 PUFA metabolism.

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