| First Author | Kang JX | Year | 2004 |
| Journal | Nature | Volume | 427 |
| Issue | 6974 | Pages | 504 |
| PubMed ID | 14765186 | Mgi Jnum | J:88166 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:3029620 | Doi | 10.1038/427504a |
| Citation | Kang JX, et al. (2004) Transgenic mice: fat-1 mice convert n-6 to n-3 fatty acids. Nature 427(6974):504 |
| abstractText | Mammals cannot naturally produce omega-3 (n-3) fatty acids--beneficial nutrients found mainly in fish oil--from the more abundant omega-6 (n-6) fatty acids and so they must rely on a dietary supply. Here we show that mice engineered to carry a fat-1 gene from the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans can add a double bond into an unsaturated fatty-acid hydrocarbon chain and convert n-6 to n-3 fatty acids. This results in an abundance of n-3 and a reduction in n-6 fatty acids in the organs and tissues of these mice, in the absence of dietary n-3. As well as presenting an opportunity to investigate the roles played by n-3 fatty acids in the body, our discovery indicates that this technology might be adapted to enrich n-3 fatty acids in animal products such as meat, milk and eggs. |
