Lipid Class and Fatty Acid Composition of Peripheral Nerve From Normal and Organophosphorus‐poisoned Chickens*

The demyelination which attends tri‐ortho‐cresyl phosphate (TOCP) or di‐isopropyl‐fluorophosphonate (DFP) administration in chickens has been well characterized histologically (Fenton, 1955; Cavanaugh, 1954) as resembling Wallerian degen‐ eration. However, no study of lipid class composition of chicken nerve degenerating after TOCP poisoning has been reported comparable to classical studies of Johnson, Mcnab band Rossiter (1949a) and of Brante,(1949) who described the lipid class changes in transected sciatic nerve. Webster (1954) observed no change in lipid phosphorus concentration or rZP]‐ phosphate incorporation into lipids in the sciatic nerves of TOCP‐poisoned hens, while NELSONand BARNUM(1960) noted a decrease in [32P]phosphate incorporation into the brain lipids of DFP‐poisoned mice. These findings were in contrast to those of Magee and Rossiter (1954) who noted an increase in the incorporation of p2P]‐ inorganic phosphate into the lipids of sciatic nerve degenerating after section. In the present study, individual lipid classes were isolated, identified, quantitated, and their fatty acid compositions determined in normal and organophosphorus‐ poisoned chickens. These results are compared with a parallel study (Berry, Cevallos and Wade, 1965) on normal and sectioned cat sciatic nerve in order to determine whether the two types of demyelination were chemically similar.