Studies of the effects of essential fatty acid deficiency in the rat

We report a model of prostaglandin depletion induced in rats by fasting for 11 days, followed by institution of an essential fatty acid-deficient diet. Urinary prostaglandin E, 2 weeks after this diet had been implemented, was 22 +/- 2 ng/24 hours compared to 113 +/- 8.5 ng/24 hours in controls (P less than 0.01). There was no difference in 24-hour urine volume or solute excretion in controls and essential fatty acid-deficient rats. Five hours after administration of NaCl, 10 mM/kg, essential fatty acid-deficient diet rats excreted 1.85 +/- 0.78 ml urine compared to 6.42 +/- 2.26 ml in control (p less than 0.01) with Na+ excretion 447 +/- 273 muEq in essential fatty acid-deficient rats vs 1483 +/- 366 muEq in control (P less than 0.01). Intravenous isotonic NaCl, 1.5% body weight, resulted in increased urine flow rate in control rats from 8.3 +/- 2 microliter/min to 28.7 +/- 8.8 microliter/min with sodium excretion increasing from 0.19 +/- 0.2 to 3.3 +/- 0.9 muEq/min. In the essential fatty acid-deficient diet animals, there was no significant change in flow rate, 6.07 +/- 2.43 to 9.85 +/- 4.29 microliter/min, or sodium excretion, 0.09 +/- 0.03 to 0.40 +/- 0.24 muEq, after saline infusion. There was no difference in the glomerular filtration rate of plasma aldosterone in the two groups after the salt load. When given a water load, 3 ml/100 g body weight, essential fatty acid-deficient diet rats excreted 2.5 +/- 0.7 ml in 5 hours compared to 6.3 +/- 1.4 ml in controls (P less than 0.01). The defect in water excretion was not due to increased sensitivity to antidiuretic hormone, since similar sensitivity to this hormone was demonstrated in the essential fatty acid-deficient diet and control rats during a water diuresis. When isotonic saline was substituted for drinking water, there was an increase in systolic blood pressure in essential fatty acid-deficient diet rats from 124 +/- 2 to 142 +/- 3 mm Hg over 9 days (P less than 0.01) compared to 122 +/- 2 before and 122 +/- 2 mm Hg after saline drinking in controls. The administration of linoleic acid for 4 days increased urinary prostaglandin E excretion to 114 +/- 15 ng/24 hours from 23 +/- 4 (P less than 0.01), and the alterations in the ability to excrete a sodium and water load were reversed. In essential fatty acid-deficient diet animals made hypertensive by 9 days of saline drinking, the institution of linoleic acid to the diet normalized the blood pressure despite the continued administration of saline. These studies demonstrate that essential fatty acid-deficient diet animals develop salt-sensitive hypertension with a combined defect in both sodium and water excretion which is reversed following correction of the essential fatty acid deficiency.