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Rats were fed either a high linolenic acid (perilla oil) or high eicosapentaenoic ؉ docosahexaenoic acid (fish oil) diet (8%), and the fatty acid and molecular species composition of ethanolamine phosphoglycerides was determined. Gene expression pattern resulting from the feeding of n-3 fatty acids also was studied. Perilla oil feeding, in contrast to fish oil feeding, was not reflected in total fatty acid composition of ethanolamine phosphoglycerides. Levels of the alkenylacyl subclass of ethanolamine phosphoglycerides increased in response to feeding. Similarly, levels of diacyl phosphatidylethanolamine molecular species containing docosahexaenoic acid (18:0͞22:6) were higher in perilla-fed or fish oil-fed rat brains whereas those in ethanolamine plasmalogens remained unchanged. Because plasmalogen levels in the brains of rats fed a n-3 fatty acid-enriched diet increased, it is plausible, however, that docosahexaenoic acid taken up from the food or formed from linolenic acid was deposited in this phospholipid subclass. Using cDNA microarrays, 55 genes were found to be overexpressed and 47 were suppressed relative to controls by both dietary regimens. The altered genes included those controlling synaptic plasticity, cytosceleton and membrane association, signal transduction, ion channel formation, energy metabolism, and regulatory proteins. This effect seems to be independent of the chain length of fatty acids, but the n-3 structure appears to be important. Because n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids have been shown to play an important role in maintaining normal mental functions and docosahexaenoic acid-containing ethanolamine phosphoglyceride (18:0͞22:6) molecular species accumulated in response to n-3 fatty acid feeding, a casual relationship between the two events can be surmised.

A comparison of the structural orders of membranes of a mixed brain-cell population isolated from Cyprinus carpio L. acclimated to either summer (23-250C) or winter (50C) revealed a high degree of compensation (80%) for temperature, as assayed by electron spin resonance spectroscopy. The cells rapidly forget their thermal history and adjust the physical properties of the membranes when shifted to the other extreme of temperature either in vivo or in vitro. Phospholipids separated from both types of animals exhibit only around 10% compensation. Arachidonic and docosahexaenoic acids are the major polyunsaturated fatty acids in the brains, but the fatty acid composition of the brain total phospholipids does not vary with adaptation to temperature. Separation of phosphatidylcholines and phosphatidylethanolamines into molecular species revealed a 2-to 3-fold accumulation of 18:1/ 22:6, 18:1/20:4, and 18:1/18:1 species in the latter; 18:0/22:6 showed an opposite tendency. Molecular species composition of phosphatidylcholines did not vary with the temperature. The same trends of changes were seen with brains offreshwater fish from subtropical (Coda cada L.) or boreal (Acerina cernua) regions. It is concluded that the gross amount of docosahexaenoic acid (22:6) plays only a minor role in adjusting the membrane physical properties to temperature. Factors other than lipids might be involved in the adaptation processes. Due to their specific molecular architecture, molecules such as 18:1/22:6, 18:1/20:4, or 18:1/18:1 phosphatidylethanolamine might prevent the contraction of membranes in the cold and may provide an environment for some other components involved in the temperature regulation ofphysical properties of nerve cell membranes.Most poikilotherms respond to thermal changes by adapting the physical properties of their membranes to the new situation to preserve the functional and structural integrity of these structures, a phenomenon that Sinensky (1) termed "homeoviscous adaptation." The homeoviscous efficacy, the extent to which the cells compensate for temperature changes, varies among the tissues and membranes (2, 3). Adjustment of the physicochemical properties of the membranes to the temperature is expected to be rapid and reversible to ensure proper functioning under fluctuating thermal conditions in fish. Wodtke and Cossins (4) have shown that the fluidity of the mitochondria in fish liver follows changes in the environmental temperature. It has also been demonstrated that the plasma membrane of carp erythrocyte rapidly adjusts to temperature under both in vivo and in vitro conditions (5, 6). The functions of neural tissue are highly dependent on membrane processes. Adaptation of the physical state of the synaptic vesicles in fish brain (2, 7), of the synaptic vesicles, mitochondria, and myelin fractions of an air-breathing, subtropical fish, Channa punctatus (8), and of the synaptosomal and myelin fraction of carp brain (9) has been described. Changes in environmental temperature have been shown to ca...

The fatty acid composition of phospholipids and the contents of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)-containing diacyl phosphatidylcholine and diacyl phosphatidylethanolamine molecular species were determined from brains of five fresh-water fish species from a boreal region adapted to 5°C, five fresh-water fish species from a temperate region acclimated to 5°C, five fresh-water fish species from a temperate region acclimated to 20°C, and three fresh water fish species from a subtropic region adapted to 25-26°C, as well as six mammalian species and seven bird species. There was little difference in DHA levels of fish brains from the different thermal environments; mammalian and bird brain phospholipids contained a few percentage points less DHA than those of the fish investigated. Molecular species of 22:6͞ 22:6, 22:6͞20:5, 22:6͞20:4, 16:0͞22:6, 18:0͞22:6, and 18:1͞22:6 were identified from all brain probes, and 16:0͞22:6, 18:0͞22:6, and 18:1͞22:6 were the dominating species. Cold-water fish brains were rich in 18:1͞22:6 diacyl phosphatidylethanolamine (and, to a lesser degree, in diacyl phosphatidylcholine), and its level decreased with increasing environmental͞body temperature. The ratio of 18:0͞22:6 to 16:0͞22:6 phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine was inversely related to body temperature. Phospholipid vesicles from brains of cold-acclimated fish were more fluid, as assessed by using a 1,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-hexatriene fluorescent probe, than those from bird brains, but the fluidities were almost equal at the respective body temperatures. It is concluded that the relative amounts of these molecular species and their ratios to each other are the major factors contributing to the maintenance of proper fluidity relationships throughout the evolutionary chain as well as helping to maintain important brain functions such as signal transduction and membrane permeability.

The influence of dietary fish oil containing n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids on the biosynthesis of triacylglycerol relative to total individual phospholipids was studied in rat liver in vivo. The dietary lipid (10% by weight of diet) was either sunflower oil enriched in linoleic acid (SO group) or MaxEPA fish oil/sunflower oil, 9:1 by weight (FO group) enriched in eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, 20:5n-3) plus docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6n-3). After a 3-week feeding period, the triacylglycerol content (in mumol/g liver) was 44% lower in the FO group relative to the SO animals. The in vivo incorporation of [3H]glycerol into individual hepatic lipids resulted in triacylglycerol/total phospholipid radioactivity ratios of 2.1 and 0.9 for the SO and FO groups, respectively. These results indicate an inhibitory effect of dietary EPA/DHA on triacylglycerol relative to phospholipid synthesis from intermediary 1,2-diacylglycerol in rat liver in vivo. This metabolic alteration was accompanied by a substantially lower amount (in mumol/g liver) of arachidonic acid and higher levels of EPA plus DHA in the triacylglycerol, choline glycerophospholipid (CGP), and ethanolamine glycerophospholipid (EGP) of the FO group. A moderately higher labelling of the EGP from [3H]glycerol was observed in the FO as compared to the SO group (as evidenced by CGP/EGP radioactivity ratios of 1.3:1 and 1.8:1, respectively). The present study provides in vivo evidence for a dampening effect of dietary fish oil on the synthesis of liver triacylglycerol relative to phospholipid and a moderate alteration of de novo synthesis of individual phospholipids.