Nutritional and metabolic studies of distillable fractions from fresh and thermally oxidized corn oil and olive oil

A semisynthetic diet containing 15% by weight of dietary fat was fed to six groups of male Wistar rats for 28 days. Two groups received the distilable fraction of fresh corn oil (DCO) or fresh olive oil (DOO), two groups the distillable fraction of the thermally oxidized fats (OCO,OOO), and two groups received the respective fresh fats as controls (FCO, FOO). Substantial changes in the fatty acid composition occurred in the fats upon thermal oxidation. Only the rats that received OOO showed overt symptoms of heated fat toxicity. This was reflected in the histological scores of these animals, with the liver sustaining the most numerous and severe lesions. Tissue fatty acid changes of any significance were confined largely to the polar liver lipids of the rats that were fed OCO or OOO. The results of this study would suggest that the relatively greater toxicity of OOO, compared to OCO, may in part be due to the high oleic:linoleic acid ratio of the fresh olive oil and in part to a higher tocopherol content of the corn oil.