Relationship between the type of dietary fatty acid and arterial thrombosis tendency in rats

The effect of dietary fatty acids on the formation and growth of intra-arterial occlusive thrombi in rats was investigated. It appeared that fats containing a large amount of saturated fatty acids promote arterial thrombus formation, whereas dietary linoleic acid has a specific anti-thrombotic effect. Oleic acid on its own does not seem to act as an anti-thrombotic substance. However, the replacement of thrombogenic fatty acids by oleic acid results in a decrease of the dietary thrombogenic potency. Moreover, the results indicated that the thrombogenicity of the saturated fatty acids increases with their chain length. As for the anti-thrombotic effect of cis fatty acids and their trans isomers, no obvious differences have been observed. Almost identical results were obtained when thrombogenicity was related to either absorption or to composition of the dietary fatty acids. Further research can therefore be restricted to this latter criterion. For the majority of the fats tested, thrombosis tendency and ADP-induced platelet aggregation were closely associated. It is therefore highly probable that platelet aggregation is involved in the mechanism by which dietary fats affect arterial thrombus formation.