Generation and remodeling of highly polyunsaturated molecular species of rat hepatocyte phospholipids

Freshly isolated rat hepatocytes were incubated for 20 min with [U-14C]glycerol in the presence or absence of unlabeled linoleic (18:2n-6), arachidonic (20:4n-6), or docosahexaenoic (22:6n-3) acid, added as albumin complex in 10% ethanol. Most of the radioactivity (approximately 95%) recovered in hepatocyte lipids was present in phosphatidylcholine (PC), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), and triacylglycerol (TAG). The presence of exogenous fatty acids resulted in (i) higher incorporation of [U-14C]glycerol, (ii) higher percentage of label in TAG, and (iii) enhanced formation of PC and PE molecular species bearing the exogenous fatty acid at both the sn-1 and sn-2 positions of glycerol. In each case, these molecular species contained 60 to 70% of the label in that lipid class. Further incubation of the cells for 40 and 80 min in the absence of labeled substrate and exogenous fatty acids resulted in a redistribution of label among PC and PE molecular species due to deacylation-reacylation at the sn-1 position of glycerol.