Change of fatty acid composition of white adipose tissue with increasing age in Syrian hamster fed alfalfa or cereal based diet

The present study's aim was to investigate change of fatty acid composition of white adipose tissue with increasing age in Syrian hamster fed continuously alfalfa (LU) or cereal based diet (F2). A total of 43 Syrian hamsters with male and female, 22 head maintained with mating between sibling in a close herd fed F2 (GN) and 21 head selected for long‐term for large number of weaning pups per a mater using GN fed LU (ALF), were used. Fatty acid composition in adipose tissues taken from the back leg subcutaneous depot, periphery of kidney and reproductive organs at 3, 8 and 13 weeks of age were determined by using a gas chromatograph. Carbon (C)18:0 in GN tended to decrease and C18:1 increased significantly with increasing age, suggesting that Δ9‐desaturase had related adaptively. C18:3 in ALF increased significantly with increasing age. The present results indicate that, although the composition in unsaturated fatty acid (USFA) in both herds was different, the ratio of USFA to saturated fatty acid increased with increasing age suggesting that USFA in GN fed F2 was at a high level compared with in ALF fed LU.