Impact of olive oil and different animal fats on tissue lipid profiles of C57PL/6N mice fed non-atherogenic diet

Animal fats are widely used in nutrition despite their different chemical composition. Consumption of these fats may be linked to the incidence of certain diseases, depending on the type and quantity of fatty acids present; however, this hypothesis has not been confirmed. Thus, we fed C57PL/6 N mice various animal fats, namely cow tallow, buffalo tallow, mutton tallow, chicken fat, and cow or buffalo milk fat, to examine their effects on growth, serum, liver, and adipose tissue lipid profiles, as well as aortic valve lesions. The results showed that the type of dietary fat had no remarkable effect on food intake or the relative weights of the spleen and liver. Except for the chicken fat-fed group, the mice fed milk fat exhibited higher feed efficiency, body weight gain, and adipose tissue content than the other groups. The diets supplemented with olive oil or chicken fat resulted in the lowest plasma total cholesterol and LDL levels, while the group fed milk fat had the highest concentration of plasma HDL and triglycerides in both plasma and adipose tissue. Although the animal fats used in this study showed non-atherogenic effects, chicken fat demonstrated better biological and nutritional properties than other animal fats.