Recovery of brain from deficiency of essential fatty acids in rats

Rats were made visibly deficient in essential fatty acids by feeding a deficient diet and were then fed a diet containing 5.0 per cent by weight corn oil as a source of essential fatty acids. After 11-13 weeks on deficient diet the weights of the brain were 25% less than those of rats on control diets. After 5 weeks on the control diet, deficient animals had regained normal brain weight and composition and had lost the deficiency symptoms. Lipids were extracted from the brains and analysed qualitatively and quantitatively, the overall effect of essential fatty acid deficiency being a reduction in the proportion of cerebrosides and sphingomyelin, the appearance of a high proportion of eicosatrienoic acid (20:3) and the reduction of arachidonic acid (20: 4) and the other essential fatty acids. It is considered that essential fatty acid deficiency retards maturing of brains and the present data show that this effect is reversible.