Dietary n-3 and n-6 fatty acids alter avian metabolism: molecular-species compostiton of breast-muscle phospholipids

The effects of diets high in n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA; provided by fish oil), n-6 PUFA (sunflower oil) or in more-saturated fatty acids (tallow) on the distribution of subclasses of choline phospholipids (PC) and ethanolamine phospholipids (PE) from the breast muscle of broiler chickens were examined. Supplementation with the different fatty acids had no effect on the distribution of phospholipid subclasses. Feeding sunflower oil or tallow gave a molecular-species profile similar in both fatty acid subtype and proportion. In the diacyl PC phospholipids, 16: 0–18: 1n-9 and 16: 0–18: 2n-6 accounted for approximately 60 % of the total molecular species, whereas for the alkylenyl PC the predominant species were 16: 0–18: 1n-9 and 16: 0–20: 4n-6. Of the diacyl PE the dominant species was 18: 0–20: 4n-6 which accounted for 50 % of the molecular species, and of the alkylenyl PE the dominant species were 16: 0–18: 1n-9, 16: 0–20: 4n-6 and 18: 0–20: 4n-6. Supplementation with fish oil significantly increased levels of both eicosapentaenoic acid (20: 5n-3) and docosahexaenoic acid (22: 6n-3) in PC and PE when compared with either sunflower oil or tallow supplementation. The increase in the n-3 PUFA incorporation was associated with a corresponding decrease in the proportion of arachidonic acid (20: 4n-6) in both PC and PE. Different dietary fats induce different patterns of fatty acid incorporation and substitution in the sn-2 position of the diacyl and alkylenyl PC and PE of avian breast muscle, and this finding is indicative of selective acyl remodelling in these two phospholipids.