THE USE OF DIETARY N-3 FATTY ACIDS AS AN EXPERIMENTAL TOOL FOR CHANGING THE LIPID CONTENT AND COMPOSITION OF PERIPORTAL AND PERIVENOUS RAT LIVER CELLS

MALDONADO EN1, AVELDAÑO MI1, RAZUC MF1, CHICOY2, OCHOA B2

Tandil, Argentina

Congreso; XXXIV Annual Meeting OF ARGENTINE ASSOCIATION OF EXPERIMENTAL PHARMACOLOGY; 2002

The liver plays a central role in the maintenance of lipid homeostasis. Previous work showed that cholesterol metabolism differs between periportal (PP) and perivenous (PV) liver cells. We also showed that, in mice fed fish oil rich diets, the content and fatty acid (FA) composition of liver lipids is modified, the new composition remaining constant from day 4 onwards, as long as the new diet is administered. The aim of this work was to determine how dietinduced changes affect subpopulations of PP and PV cells. These were obtained by centrifugal elutriation from the liver of rats fed a chow diet and an n-3 FA-enriched diet (9% of fish oil). In control rats, the lipid content and FA composition were very similar between PP and PV cells. The administration of fish oil resulted in lipid changes quite similar to those found previously in whole liver (decrease in the amount of triacylglycerols and increase in the percentages of n-3 FA in lipids). Some differences between PP and PV (e.g. higher percentages of long-chain n-3 FA in PP lipids) were observed only at day 4, both supopulations reaching a similar composition at day 7 and onwards. Dietary n-3 FA can thus be used as an experimental tool to obtain liver PP and PV cells enriched in different types of FA in relatively short times (not more than 10 days). These cells can be useful models in which to study how dietary pressure affects biotransformation processes