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Nutrition and Neural Lipids

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Advances in Nutritional Research

Part of the book series: Advances in Nutritional Research ((ANUR,volume 2))

Abstract

Among the body organs, the brain is one of the richest in lipids. Moreover, the lipids of the brain and neural tissue are, in general, more diverse in nature than the lipids of any other organ. The amount of lipid in neural tissue and its peculiarities are largely explained by the presence of the lipid-rich and mul-timembraned myelin sheath. In spite of the apparent dependence of neural tissue on a rich and specifically constituted lipid environment, it was for many years believed that neural lipids, including those of myelin, were metabolically stable and largely, if not entirely, resistant to change by nutritional manipulation. More recently, it has become appreciated that the lipids of the central nervous system (CNS) and the peripheral nervous system (PNS) serve not only as stable structural constituents, but also as participants in neural activity, and, under certain circumstances, they are subject to modification by nutritional means.

Studies by the author and associates cited in this article were supported by grant number 05204 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and by Hatch Funds from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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  1. Department of Food Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA

    Patricia V. Johnston

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  1. University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

    Harold H. Draper

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Johnston, P.V. (1979). Nutrition and Neural Lipids. In: Draper, H.H. (eds) Advances in Nutritional Research. Advances in Nutritional Research, vol 2. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9931-5_7

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