The analysis of fatty acid composition in eyes of mouse

: Fatty acids are one class of the chemical components of eyeballs, especially in the histological structure of retina. They are also the energy source for the maintenance of the normal physiology function. This paper describes the gas chromatographic analysis of fatty acid composition of mouse eyeballs for the first time. The fatty acids in mouse eyeballs were extracted by a mixture of chloroform-methanol-hydrochloric acid followed by esterification with methanol-potassium hydroxide method. The separation was performed on a 25 m x 0.25 mm PEG-20M fused silica capillary column. The qualitative and quantitative analysis of 12 main fatty acids has been accomplished. The results indicate that the normal eyeballs of mouse contain high level of saturated fatty acids which were 52.8% of the whole fatty acids. The content of the mono-unsaturated fatty acids is limited, but the poly-unsaturated fatty acids are the major constituents and account for 18.2% of the whole fatty acids. The ratio of saturated to unsaturated fatty acids is 0.6.