Effects of dietary pantethine levels on contents of fatty acids and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances in the liver of rats orally administered varying amounts of autoxidized linoleate.

The effects of dietary pantethine levels on the contents and compositions of fatty acids and on the levels of lipid peroxides were investigated with rat liver and its S-9 fraction under administration of 0 (non), 0.2 (low dose), and 0.35 ml (high dose) of autoxidized linoleate (AL) per 100 g body weight of the rats per day for 5 days. AL having 800 meq/kg of peroxide value (PV) and 1,700 meq/kg of carbonyl value (CV) was dosed to the rats of each group given drinking water containing 0 mg% (deficient), 6.25 mg% (adequate), and 125 mg% pantethine (excess). In the pantethine-deficient and -adequate groups, the contents of fatty acids both in the liver homogenate and in the S-9 fraction were correspondingly decreased by increasing dose levels of AL, and the decrease was remarkable especially in the pantethine-deficient group, but was not significant in the pantethine-excess group even by a high dose of AL. Particularly, in the high dose of AL, the notable decreases of oleic acid (C18:1) contents in both the liver and the S-9 fraction were observed in rats of the pantethine-deficient and -adequate groups. The thiobarbituric acid (TBA) values in the liver homogenate and the S-9 fraction were increased correspondingly by increasing dose levels of AL, and the increases were repressed in the pantethine-excess group.