Intralipid increases lung polyunsaturated fatty acids and protects newborn rats from oxygen toxicity

Intralipid, derived from soybean oil and containing a high percentage of n-6 family polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and also linolenic acid, an n-3 family PUFA, is commonly the first fat source provided to very low birth weight premature infants. Following up on our previous reports that newborn rats born to dams fed high-PUFA diets demonstrate superior tolerance to hyperoxia, we examined whether the high-PUFA fat source Intralipid might also protect against oxygen toxicity. Adult female rats were fed either regular Rat Chow or fat-free diet containing 20%-Intralipid as the fat source for 3 wk before and then throughout pregnancy and lactation. One- and 5-d-old offspring of Intralipid diet-fed dams demonstrated significant increases in lung lipid n-6 family PUFA plus elevated linolenic acid compared with regular diet-fed offspring. These characteristic fatty acid patterns, apparent in total lung lipids, were even more pronounced in the triglyceride fraction compared with the phospholipid fraction. Associated with these fatty acid changes were significantly improved hyperoxic survival rates (89 out of 95 = 94% survival after 7 d of greater than 95% O2 exposure) in Intralipid offspring (versus 89 out of 106 = 84%, p less than 0.05 in regular diet offspring) and evidence of superior clinical/pathologic status. No differences in pulmonary antioxidant enzyme or surfactant system development, response of antioxidant enzymes to hyperoxic exposure, or lung prostaglandin E2, 6-keto PGF1-alpha or leukotrienes C4-F4 were present. These findings continue to support the hypothesis that increasing lung PUFA content may provide increased O2 free radical scavenging capacity, thus protecting against hyperoxic lung damage.