Fatty Acid Alteration of L1210 Murine Leukemia Cells. Growth Rate and Stability of Lipid Changes in Culture

Abstract

The fatty acid composition of L1210 lymphoblastic murine leukemia cells was altered by experimental diets before the cells were placed in tissue culture for the study of reversion of the lipid modification. Both types of fatty acid-modified cells were cultured in the same fetal calf serum-containing medium designed to maintain the differences. At the time of removal of the L1210 cells from DBA/2J inbred male mice, marked differences existed in the fatty acid composition of the cell phospholipids and neutral lipids. The phospholipids from the mice fed a sunflower seed oil diet contained 16% more polyenoic fatty acids, and phospholipids from mice fed a coconut oil diet contained 18% more monoenoic fatty acids. During 4 days in tissue culture, only limited changes were found in phospholipid fatty acid composition. The polyenoic fatty acids of the phospholipids from mice fed the sunflower oil diet decreased only 3.2%, which was primarily due to decreases in linoleate and long-chain polyunsaturates. Less than a 2% change occurred in the monoenoic fatty acids and saturates. The monoenoic fatty acids of the phospholipids in cells from the coconut oil-fed mice decreased 7.8%, which was primarily due to decreases in palmitoleate and oleate. The polyenoic and saturated fatty acids in the phospholipids of these cells changed less than 2%. Greater changes were found in neutral lipids, which suggests that they may provide a source of fatty acids to stabilize phospholipids. The observation that the cellular content of triglyceride declined in culture, whereas the phospholipid content was unchanged, lends further support to this possibility. No difference was seen in the growth rate or viability between the two types of fatty acid-modified cells. The conclusion was reached that the lipid alterations of L1210 phospholipids are maintained in tissue culture for at least 4 days. Furthermore, the lipid alterations had no effect on the growth rate of the cells in culture.