Atherosclerosis Breakthrough
Chemical & Engineering News · 1958
A BIG BREAKTHROUGH toward unraveling the role of fatty acids in liquid metabolism and atherosclerosis: Oleic, linoleic, and linolenic acids—biologically important C 18 unsaturated fatty acids-can now be separated quickly by gas chromatography from complex lipid mixtures. These three fatty acids may be keys to questions on fat metabolism in humans and perhaps atherosclerosis. These new developments in high temperature gas chromatography open the door to detailed study of "essential" fatty acids and fats in human diets, says S. R. Lipsky, Department of Internal Medicine of Yale Medical School. Researchers know that cholesterol is involved in atherosclerosis; fats in human diets, too, are part of the picture. Now, many scientists think that oleic, linoleic, and linolenic acids, along with arachidonic acid, may play key roles in how people use fats, and maybe in atherosclerosis. But until now, research on fats and atherosclerosis has been stymied by lack of proper analytical tools—existing methods were time consuming. Very ...