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Fatty acid composition of tissue lipids of growing geese fed cholesterol and cholic acid
Author(s) -
Eder K.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of animal physiology and animal nutrition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.651
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1439-0396
pISSN - 0931-2439
DOI - 10.1046/j.1439-0396.1999.813203.x
Subject(s) - cholic acid , cholesterol , biochemistry , chemistry , fatty acid , metabolism , polyunsaturated fatty acid , bile acid , lipid metabolism , biology , food science
In laboratory animals, dietary cholesterol has been shown to cause increased levels of lipids in plasma and liver, and additionally markedly raises liver weights (Lee and Ho 1975; Huang et al. 1984; Stangl et al. 1994). In poultry, similar studies dealing with the effects of cholesterol are lacking. An effect of cholesterol on liver weights could be of particular interest in geese since the production of fatty livers (‘Foie gras’) by force‐feeding techniques is common in some countries. Therefore, a previous study (Eder 1999) was concerned with the effects of feeding cholesterol on concentrations of various lipids in liver, plasma and muscle. This study demonstrated that dietary cholesterol has profound effects on lipid concentrations in liver, plasma and even in the muscle of geese which were additionally amplified by feeding cholic acid. This study was performed to investigate whether an accumulation of cholesterol in tissues also affects the metabolism of fatty acids. This question was of particular interest because it is known that both, cholesterol and fatty acids are constituents of membranes influencing important membrane properties such as fluidity, permeability or the activity of membrane‐bound enzymes (Stubbs and Smith 1984). In order to clarify that question, the fatty acid composition was analysed in various tissues of geese that had been fed diets with cholesterol and/or cholic acid.