Effect of .ALPHA.-tocopherol deficiency on carp. VI. Deficiency symptoms and changes of fatty acid and triglyceride distributions in adult carp.

Adult carp weighing about 100g were kept on an α-tocopherol deficient diet for 17 months in order to examine the influence of α-tocopherol deficiency on different tissues with special emphasis on the reproductive organs and on fatty acid and triglyceride distributions. The pattern of fatty acid changes due to the tocopherol deficiency was found to be very similar to that seen in essential fatty acid deficiency in both fish and mammals. The most marked change in fatty acid composition was the decrease of 18:2ω6 level in both triglyceride and polar lipid fractions in most of the deficient tissues. In the deficient ovaries there were decreases in 20:4ω6, 50:5ω3 and 22:6ω3 along with 18:2ω6 and increases in 18:1ω9 and 20:3ω9. The general pattern of changes in triglyceride distribution was the increase in the deficient carp of the low molecular weight triglycerides and decrease of the usually dominant C-52 to C-56 triglycerides. The tocopherol deficiency in adult carp also revealed basically the same histological changes as those recognized in carp fingerlings. The depletion of tocopherol from the diet exerted significant effects on the pituitary-ovarian system and this clearly indicated that α-tocopherol plays an important role in reproductive physiology in carp on the same basis as in higher animals.