Dietary Fats Affect Rat Plasma Lipoprotein Secondary Structure as Assessed by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy

This investigation was undertaken to determine by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy the effects of diets enriched with fish, sunflower or olive oils on the secondary structure of plasma HDL and LDL from rats, as well as the effects on lipid unsaturation and acyl chain lengths. Controls were fed a commercial diet. In HDL, random coil conformation was relatively high in rats fed the fish diet, probably due to the irregular geometry of polyunsaturated fatty acids interacting with apoproteins. Parallel structural behaviors were observed for rats fed control and olive oil diets. The lowest lipid unsaturation level was found in HDL of rats fed olive oil, and acyl chain lengths were slightly increased by the three fats. Rats fed olive oil had the lowest percentage of LDL beta-sheets and these were more abundant in rats fed the fish oil diet. The least lipid unsaturation in LDL was in rats fed the olive oil diet. No significant differences in acyl chain lengths were observed. Certain protein conformational changes and/or apoprotein composition differences due to dietary fat may affect the binding between lipoproteins and their receptors in cells.