Dietary fatty acids are associated with lipid health. We investigated the effect of the chain length

and the degree of saturation of fatty acids in dietary triglycerides on serum lipid profiles and

hepatic lipid metabolism in Wistar rats. Fat component of the basal diet (soybean oil) was

replaced with fats with fatty acids of different chain lengths and saturation and the serum lipids

were monitored for 150 days. Principal component (PC) analysis of serum lipid components

were related to chain length and saturation using second order polynomial regression analysis.

The combined effect of chain length and saturation on PC 1 scores were evaluated by multiple

regression analysis. Variation of lipid parameters cannot be well-explained by chain length or

saturation alone. Consistent with the formation of large amounts of lipid droplets in the liver,

expression of sterol regulatory element binding protein -2 (SREBP2) and peroxisome

proliferator-activated receptors (PPARα) involved in hepatic lipid metabolism showed

significant (P<0.05) downregulation in margarine diet group and SREBP2 in dairy butter diet

group compared to the control group. Average chain length of fatty acids in triglycerides has a

higher influence on the quality of serum lipid parameters than the average degree of saturation of

fatty acids.

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