Fat Absorption in Essential Fatty Acid Deficiency*

The various gross symptoms of essential fatty acid deficiency in the rat are well recognized, but little is known about the metabolic features of this disease. The purpose of this investigation was to study the influence of fat deficiency on the rate of absorption and transport of fat through the intestinal mucosa. The scheme of fat labeling by the use of spectroscopically active methyl esters of conjugated corn oil fatty acids as previously described by Miller et al. (1) was used. Rats that had been fasted for 24 hours were fed by stomach tube either the spectroscopically active esters or untreated corn oil (Mazola). The amount administered was 0.5 cc. per sq. dm. of body surface. 8 hours after the oil feeding the animals were killed by etherization, the contents of the stomach and small intestine removed for the determination of the amount of fat absorbed, and the intestinal mucosa removed for the determination of the amounts of labeled acids that were incorporated in the acetone-soluble and acetoneinsoluble mucosal lipids. The details of the methods used have been described elsewhere (1, 2). Three separate experiments on the rate of absorption were performed. In Experiments 1 and 2 the labeled acid incorporation in the mucosal lipids was followed. All of the rats were raised