Modulation of lipid metabolism and vitamin A by conjugated linoleic acid.

The term conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) refers to a collection of positional and geometrical isomers of octadeca- dienoic acid with conjugated double bonds. CLA has been shown to possess several beneficial activities in different experimental models, however, out of 28 isomers only two, c9, t11 and t10, c12 have been thus far demonstrated to be biologically active. The discovery that it can be elongated and desaturated as a regular fatty acid in human and animal tissues brought a new possibility that its activity may be related to its properties as a peculiar unsaturated fatty acid. In fact, CLA is able to be incorporated in lipid classes as oleic acid, accumulating in those tissues rich in neutral lipids; to be metabolized as linoleic acid and so influencing linoleic acid desaturation and elongation; and to be beta oxidized in peroxisomes which may account for, through activation of PPARs, its ability to increase free retinol levels and influence gene expression. These activities are amplified where CLA accumulates more such as mammary and adipose tissues and may explain its peculiar beneficial properties, at relative low dietary concentrations, in these tissues. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that CLA can be endogenously formed by delta 9 desaturation of vaccenic acid (t11 18:1) thus forming the isomer c9, t11. Either endogenously formed or through dietary intake, CLA showed to be metabolized in the same way and to exert the same biological properties. We may conclude that a regular intake of CLA, or/and vaccenic acid as its precursor, should work as an excellent preventive agent by modulating lipid metabolism in target tissues thus conferring protection against the attack of insults of different type.

The effect of conjugated linoleic acid isomers on fatty acid profiles of liver and adipose tissues and their conversion to isomers of 16:2 and 18:3 conjugated fatty acids in rats.

Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is a collective term that describes different isomers of linoleic acid with conjugated double bonds. Although the main dietary isomer is 9cis,11trans-18:2, which is present in dairy products and ruminant fat, the biological effects of CLA generally have been studied using mixtures in which the 9cis,11trans- and the 10trans,12cis-18:2 were present at similar levels. In the present work, we have studied the impact of each isomer (9cis,11 trans- and 10trans,12cis-18:2) given separately in the diet of rats for 6 wk. The 10trans,12cis-18:2 decreased the triacylglycerol content of the liver (-32%) and increased the 18:0 content at the expense of 18:1 n-9, suggesting an alteration of the delta9 desaturase activity, as was already demonstrated in vitro. This was not observed when the 9cis,11trans-18:2 was given in the diet. Moreover, the 10trans,12cis-18:2 induced an increase in the C22 polyunsaturated fatty acids in the liver lipids. The 10trans,12cis-18:2 was mainly metabolized into conjugated 16:2 and 18:3, which have been identified. The 9cis,11trans isomer was preferentially metabolized into a conjugated 20:3 isomer. Thus, the 9cis,11trans- and the 10trans,12cis-CLA isomers are metabolized differently and have distinct effects on the metabolism of polyunsaturated fatty acids in rat liver while altering liver triglyceride levels differentially.

Distribution of conjugated linoleic acid and metabolites in different lipid fractions in the rat liver.

Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is known to provide certain health benefits in experimental animal models. The major CLA isomer in food is c 9,t11-CLA. A primary objective of this study was to investigate the uptake of c 9,t11-CLA and its downstream metabolites into various lipid fractions in the liver of rats fed either a high or low CLA diet (containing 0.1 or 0.8 g CLA/100 g diet, respectively). As expected, the levels of all conjugated diene (CD) fatty acids (CD 18:2 + CD 18:3 + CD 20:3 + CD 20:4) were elevated about 8-fold in the high CLA diet group. However, there was no change in the distribution of CLA and CLA metabolites into various lipid fractions due to CLA intake. Unlike linoleic acid or gamma-linolenic acid, which were distributed mainly in phospholipids, CD 18:2, CD 18:3, and CD 20:3 were incorporated primarily in neutral lipid. Furthermore, the incorporation of all nonconjugated unsaturated fatty acids was not perturbed by CLA. Regardless of the level of CLA in the diet, CD 20:4 was predominantly enriched in phosphatidylserine and phosphatidylinositol. In contrast, arachidonic acid was primarily enriched in phosphatidylcholine and less so in phosphatidylethanolamine. The above findings may have potential implication regarding the role of CLA in modulating eicosanoid metabolism.

5'-Methylthioadenosine administration prevents lipid peroxidation and fibrogenesis induced in rat liver by carbon-tetrachloride intoxication.

BACKGROUND: 5'-Methylthioadenosine (MTA), a product of S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) catabolism, could undergo oxidation by mono-oxygenases and auto-oxidation. MTA and SAM effects on oxidative liver injury were evaluated in CCl4-treated rats. METHODS: Male Wistar rats were killed 1-48 h after poisoning with a single intraperitoneal CCl4 dose (0.15 ml/100 g) or with the same dose twice a week for 14 weeks. Daily doses of MTA or SAM (384 micromol/kg), started 1 week before acute CCl4 administration or with chronic treatment, were continued up to the time of sacrifice. RESULTS: Acute and chronic CCl4 intoxication decreased MTA and, to a lesser extent, SAM and reduced glutathione (GSH) liver levels. MTA administration increased liver MTA without affecting SAM and GSH. SAM treatment caused complete/partial recovery of these compounds. MTA and, to a lesser extent, SAM prevented an increase in liver phospholipid hydroperoxides in acutely and chronically intoxicated rats and in prolyl hydroxylase activity and trichrome-positive areas in chronically treated rats. MTA prevented upregulation of Tgf-beta1, Collagen-alpha1 (I) and Tgf-alpha genes in liver of chronically intoxicated rats, and TGF-beta1-induced transdifferentiation to myofibroblasts and growth stimulation by platelet-derived growth factor-b of stellate cells in vitro. CONCLUSIONS: MTA and SAM protect against oxidative liver injury through partially different mechanisms.

Vaccenic acid feeding increases tissue levels of conjugated linoleic acid and suppresses development of premalignant lesions in rat mammary gland.

The objective of this report was to determine whether vaccenic acid (t11-18:1) is converted efficiently to conjugated linoleic acid (c9,t11-18:2, CLA) in rats via the delta 9-desaturase reaction and, if so, whether vaccenic acid could substitute for CLA as an anticancer agent. In Study 1, rats were fed 1%, 2%, or 3% vaccenic acid in their diet, and tissue levels of CLA and CLA metabolites were determined in liver and mammary gland. In general, concentrations of CLA and CLA metabolites increased proportionately with an increase in vaccenic acid intake, at least up to the 2% dose level. Beyond this dose, there was clearly a plateauing effect. Thus vaccenic acid concentration increased from an undetectable level in the control to 78.5 nmol/mg lipid in the liver of rats fed a 2% vaccenic acid diet. This was accompanied by an increase in CLA from 2.3 to 33.6 nmol/mg lipid. These changes were also mirrored in the mammary gland, where increases in vaccenic acid (from 27.5 to 163.2 nmol/mg lipid) and CLA (from 17.8 to 108.9 nmol/mg lipid) were similarly observed. Vaccenic acid at 2% produced a CLA concentration in the mammary gland that was historically associated with a positive response in tumor inhibition based on our past experience. This provided the basis for selecting 2% vaccenic acid in Study 2, which was designed to evaluate its efficacy in blocking the development of premalignant lesions in the rat mammary gland. In this experiment, formation of histologically identifiable pathology due to intraductal proliferation of terminal end bud cells of mammary epithelium was used as the end point of analysis at 6 wk after carcinogen administration. Treatment with vaccenic acid reduced the total number of these premalignant lesions by approximately 50%. We hypothesize that the anticancer response to vaccenic acid is likely to be mediated by its endogenous conversion to CLA via delta 9-desaturase.

Changes in conjugated linoleic acid and its metabolites in patients with chronic renal failure.

BACKGROUND: Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is a mixture of isomers of linoleic acid with conjugated double bonds that constitutes the most abundant fatty acid with conjugated dienes (CDs) in humans. CLA, erroneously considered in the past as a product of lipoperoxidation, has a dietary origin and has shown to possess anticarcinogenic and anti-atherogenic activity, mainly in animal studies. CLA can be metabolized to conjugated linolenic acid (CD18:3) and to conjugated eicosatrienoic acid (CD20:3) and these metabolites may be implicated in CLA activity. Because of the presence of dyslipidemia and the high incidence of cardiovascular and neoplastic diseases in uremic patients, we evaluated CLA and its metabolites in these patients in order to evaluate their metabolism and site distribution. METHODS: We measured CLA, CD18:3, CD20:3, CD fatty acid hydroperoxides (lipoperoxidation products), and linoleic acid in the plasma, adipose tissue, and red blood cell (RBC) membranes by using high-pressure liquid chromatography in the following groups: (1) 23 chronic renal failure (CRF) patients with creatine clearance (CCr)> 10 mL/min (26.2 +/- 16.7); (2) 21 end-stage CRF patients in conservative treatment with CCr <10 mL/min (6.8 +/- 1.8); (3) 30 hemodialysis (HD) patients; and (4) 30 healthy controls. RESULTS: The incorporation of CLA, CD18:3, and CD20:3 in RBC membranes was significantly reduced in group 1 and was even more reduced in groups 2 and 3. CLA significantly increased both in the plasma and adipose tissue of end-stage CRF patients only. CD18:3 and CD20:3 did not change in the plasma and adipose tissue of any group. No significant changes in linoleic acid and CD fatty acid hydroperoxides were found. CONCLUSIONS: The alterations of CD in CRF patients are not due to lipoperoxidation. The increased levels of CLA in plasma and adipose tissue of end-stage CRF patients may be due either to a reduced metabolization of CLA to CD18:3 and CD20:3, or to an altered site distribution with reduced incorporation in cellular membranes and accumulation in the plasma and adipose tissue. The clinical significance of these changes remains to be investigated.

Conjugated linoleic acid-enriched butter fat alters mammary gland morphogenesis and reduces cancer risk in rats.

Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is a potent cancer preventive agent in animal models. To date, all of the in vivo work with CLA has been done with a commercial free fatty acid preparation containing a mixture of c9,t11-, t10,c12- and c11,t13-isomers, although CLA in food is predominantly (80-90%) the c9,t11-isomer present in triacylglycerols. The objective of this study was to determine whether a high CLA butter fat has biological activities similar to those of the mixture of free fatty acid CLA isomers. The following four different endpoints were evaluated in rat mammary gland: 1) digitized image analysis of epithelial mass in mammary whole mount; 2) terminal end bud (TEB) density; 3) proliferative activity of TEB cells as determined by proliferating cell nuclear antigen immunohistochemistry; and 4) mammary cancer prevention bioassay in the methylnitrosourea model. It should be noted that TEB cells are the target cells for mammary chemical carcinogenesis. Feeding butter fat CLA to rats during the time of pubescent mammary gland development reduced mammary epithelial mass by 22%, decreased the size of the TEB population by 30%, suppressed the proliferation of TEB cells by 30% and inhibited mammary tumor yield by 53% (P < 0.05). Furthermore, all of the above variables responded with the same magnitude of change to both butter fat CLA and the mixture of CLA isomers at the level of CLA (0.8%) present in the diet. Interestingly, there appeared to be some selectivity in the uptake or incorporation of c9,t11-CLA over t10,c12-CLA in the tissues of rats given the mixture of CLA isomers. Rats consuming the CLA-enriched butter fat also consistently accumulated more total CLA in the mammary gland and other tissues (four- to sixfold increases) compared with those consuming free fatty acid CLA (threefold increases) at the same dietary level of intake. We hypothesize that the availability of vaccenic acid (t11-18:1) in butter fat may serve as the precursor for the endogenous synthesis of CLA via the Delta9-desaturase reaction. Further studies will be conducted to investigate other attributes of this novel dairy product.

Decrease in linoleic acid metabolites as a potential mechanism in cancer risk reduction by conjugated linoleic acid.

Previous research suggested that conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) feeding during the period of pubescent mammary gland development in the rat resulted in diminished mammary epithelial branching which might account for the reduction in mammary cancer risk. Terminal end buds (TEB) are the primary sites for the chemical induction of mammary carcinomas in rodents. One of the objectives of the present study was to investigate the modulation of TEB density by increasing levels of dietary CLA and to determine how this might affect the risk of methylnitrosourea-induced mammary carcinogenesis. The data show a graded and parallel reduction in TEB density and mammary tumor yield produced by 0.5 and 1% CLA. No further decrease in either parameter was observed when CLA in the diet was raised to 1.5 or 2%. Thus, optimal CLA nutrition during pubescence could conceivably control the population of cancer-sensitive target sites in the mammary gland. Since both CLA and linoleic acid are likely to share the same enzyme system for chain desaturation and elongation, it is possible that increased CLA intake may interfere with the further metabolism of linoleic acid. Fatty acid analysis of total lipid showed that CLA and CLA metabolites continued to accumulate in mammary tissue in a dose-dependent manner over the range 0.5-2% CLA. There was no perturbation in tissue linoleic acid, however, linoleic acid metabolites (including 18:3, 20:3 and 20:4) were consistently depressed by up to 1% CLA. Of particular interest was the significant drop in 20:4 (arachidonic acid), which is the substrate for the cyclooxygenase and lipoxygenase pathways of eicosanoid biosynthesis. Thus the CLA dose-response effect on arachidonic acid suppression corresponded closely with the CLA dose-response effect on cancer protection in the mammary gland. This information is critical in providing new insights regarding the biochemical action of CLA.

An increase in vitamin A status by the feeding of conjugated linoleic acid.

Previous research indicated that conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is a potent inhibitor of mammary carcinogenesis. The present study showed a progressive increase in retinol (vitamin A alcohol) in the liver in proportion to CLA intake in rats that were fed different levels of CLA (in increments of 0.5%) for 1 month. The escalation reached a magnitude of about fivefold over the control at 2% dietary CLA. In contrast, the increase in liver retinyl esters peaked at about twofold between 0.5% and 1% CLA. Only retinol was detected in mammary tissue; a maximal twofold increase was attained at 0.5% CLA, and no dose-response effect was evident. The above findings are discussed in relation to two important questions: 1) How does CLA raise vitamin A status in the animal? 2) Is the increase in vitamin A associated with the anticarcinogenic effect of CLA?

A novel approach to study linoleic acid autoxidation: importance of simultaneous detection of the substrate and its derivative oxidation products.

In this paper we have proposed a novel approach for studying the reaction of lipid oxidation by using the simplest chemical system available. Neat linoleic acid was incubated for 24 hours at 37 degrees C in the air. The course of lipid oxidation was followed by measuring simultaneously by HPLC with a diode array detector 1) linoleic acid decrease, 2) the products formed by radical attack, namely four hydroperoxy-octadeca-dienoic acid (HPODE) isomers, two c,t (c,t) and two trans,trans (t,t). 3) the byproducts formed by HPODE degradations, the four oxo-octadeca-dienoic acid (oxo-ODE) isomers. In HPODEs the presence of conjugated diene chromophore was confirmed by second derivative spectrophotometry. c,t HPODEs were also identified for their positional isomerism, while for t,t molecules the lack of suitable reference compound makes unfeasible the identification of their positional isomerism. As in the case of the latter two c,t and two t,t oxo-ODE isomers were characterized. This simple system appears to be useful for studying the activity exherted by lipophilic molecules that, like alpha-tocopherol, may act as antioxidants and/or as hydrogen atom donating molecules. The presence of alpha-tocopherol in different concentration for 24 hours in the reaction environment, shifts the reaction of linoleic acid autoxidation towards different byproduct formations. From the results obtained it is evident that alpha-tocopherol acts as hydrogen atom donor at all concentration tested, shifting the reaction toward a prevalent formation of c,t isomer of both HPODEs and oxo-ODEs. At concentration lower than 40 nmoles, when the ratio between alpha-tocopherol and linoleic acid was 1:100, the reaction of autoxidation is strongly inhibited, while at higher concentration alpha-tocopherol acted as a prooxidant. In these experimental conditions, alpha-tocopherylquinone was spectrophotometrically identified as the predominant oxidation product of alpha-tocopherol.