CONTRIBUTION TO THE STUDY OF LIPID OXIDATION-PRODUCTS - INVESTIGATION OF MODEL AND BIOLOGICAL-SYSTEMS

Using a new analytical procedure, the oxidation products of two models systems, i.e. oxidised soy-bean and egg lecithins and those naturally present in microsomal phospholipids of rat liver cells, have been investigated. The method performs the simultaneous reduction of hydroperoxyl groups and the transmethylation of the polar lipids without oxirane ring opening. The products obtained following treatment of the model lecithin systems with the ART-reagent contained a mixture of allyl hydroxy- and epoxy-C18 methyl esters, together with saturated hydroxy-C18 methyl esters, the formation of which corresponded to a non-regiospecific water addition to the DELTA-9 double bond of the octadecenoate moieties. Treatment of the microsomal phospholipids with the ART-reagent allowed us to isolate some novel hydroxyl derivatives the structure of which formally corresponded to a regiospecific water addition to a well-defined double bond of linoleic and arachidonic acid moieties. The gas chromatographic behaviour of some of the hydroxy-C18 methyl esters, dependent upon their molecular structure, is discussed.