Whether your gonads will degenerate after 3 weeks of food deprivation

3 weeks without food,what will happen to your body?A research published in Food and Nutrition Sciences made a starvation trial to explore the changes of biochemical composition and the fatty acid dynamics in the triacylglycerol fraction of the digestive gland, gonads and adductor muscle of the scallop Flexopecten glaber.The following it the general ideas:

Results show that three weeks of food deprivation induce depletion of carbohydrates and a significant decrease in proteins and lipids. The noteworthy patterns recorded for the various classes of lipids were the increase of the amount of phosphatidylethanolamine against a strong decline of mono-diacylglycerols, triacylglycerol and phosphatidylserine classes in gonads. These results reflect the ability of Flexopecten glaber to remodel endogenous lipid classes in order to avoid the gonads deterioration. In the starved specimens, severe declines of the n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid group were recorded in the triacylglycerol fraction of digestive gland and adductor muscle against the increase of this group in gonads. These results confirm the role of triacylglycerol as a polyunsaturated fatty acids reservoir and pointed out to their mobilization from storage organs to the developing gonads during the food shortage trial. Examination of fatty acid data revealed that food deprivation lead Flexopecten glaber to invest in saving and accumulation of highly unsaturated fatty acids in go- nads. This applies mainly to the arachidonic acid (20:4n-6) and the docosahexaenoic acid (22:6n-3).

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(source:SCIRP/doi: 10.4236/fns.2013.44052)