Male Wistar rats were fed semipurifed diets containing 20% fat for 25 weeks. Ten different oils or oil blends were employed, including rapessed oils, simulated rapeseed-type oils, and modified rapeseed-type oils. Safflower, soybean, and hydrogenated coconut oils served as control oils. Histopathological examination of the cardiac tissue was conducted at the end of the study and an incidenceseverity rating assigned to the lesions induced by each fat. Oils containing high levels of erucic acid (26-30%) induced the most severe cardiac necrosis, irrespective of the source of erucic acid (rapeseed oil or nasturtium oil). Increasing the linoleic: :linolenic acid ratio of the high erucic oils to that of soybean oil failed to reduce necrosis, but the absence of linolenic acid from a high erucic acid oil blend resulted in a markedly reduced lesion incidenceseverity rating, comparable to those obtained for low erucic acid rapessed oil and soybean oil which were similar. Lowest lesion incidence was obtained with safflower oil and hydrogenated coconut oil. We have postulated that linolenic acid plays a role in the etiology of cardiac necrosis observed when rats are fed diets containing low erucic acid rapeseed oils.

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