10,12-Octadecadienoic acid biological activity

The polyunsaturated fatty acids, which were first recognized by Burr and Burr (1930) as possessing biopotency in curing or preventing the fat-deficiency disease produced by the rigid exclusion of fat from the diet, were linoleic add, 9,12-octadecadienoic acid, linohnic add, 9,12,15-octadecatrienoic acid, and arachidonic add, 5,8,11,14-eicosatetraenoic acid. Hume et al. (1938) reported that a docosahexaenoic acid of unknown structure possesses-similar biological activity. Moreover, methyl linoleate and linoleyl alcohol, 9,12-octadecadienol, were found by Turpeinen (1937, 1938) to possess biopotency, presumably because they are converted to arachidonic acid in the body in the course of their intermediary metabolism. 

Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is a collective term for positional (9,11 and 10,12) and geometric (trans,cis cisjrans cis,cis and trarts,tram) isomers of octadecadienoic acid (Cl8 2) with a conjugated double bond. Synthetic CLA, prepared from linoleic acid by alkaline isomerization, exhibits potent anticarcinogenic activities in several carcinogen-induced animal models 1-4) and cytotoxicities for several cancer cell lines (5-5). Other biological activities, such as immune stimulation (P), body fat reduction 10,11 modulation of cholesterol content 12) and growth stimulation 13) were also reported. 

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