Fatty Acid Components of Ovine Erythrocyte Lipids

Abstract

As part of a study of comparative lipid metabolism, the distribution of fatty acids has been investigated in a number of mammalian tissues (Horgan and Masters 1963; Masters 1964a, 1964b, 1964c; Connellan and Masters 1965), a major aim of these studies being to facilitate correlation between lipid composition and function. In this context, it is widely recognized that membranes playa fundamental role in cellular metabolism, and that lipid is an essential component of these biomembranes (Stein and Danielli 1956). The study of structure-function relationships in this situation, however, has been hindered by the difficulty of isolating specific membranes without contamination by other lipids. The mature mammalian erythrocyte possesses advantageous characteristics for this type of investigation because of the lack of sub-cellular particles, and the resultant presence of only a single membrane type (Kogl et al. 1960). As an extension of previous investigations, then, the fatty acid composi-tion of ovine erythrocytes has been determined.