LINOLENIC ACID DEFICIENCY

Linolenic acid deficiency has not been demonstrated clearly in warm blooded animals, yet circumstantial evidence suggests that n-3 fatty acids may have functions in these animals. The fact that several species of fish definitely require dietary n-3 fatty acids indicates that n-3 fatty acids have important and specific functions in these animals and suggests that such functions may also be present in warm blooded animals. It is also true that n-3 fatty acid distribution in tissues of birds and mammals appears to be under strict metabolic control, and that this complex metabolic control mechanism apparently has survived evolutionary pressure for a very long time. So far, attempts to produce linolenic acid deficiency in mammals have not revealed an absolute requirement for n-3 fatty acids. If functions for n-3 fatty acids do exist in warm blooded animals, it seems probable that they may be located in the cerebral cortex or in the retina, because these tissues normally contain high concentrations of n-3 fatty acids. © 1979 American Oil Chemists' Society.