Retinal Fatty Acids in an Animal Model of Diabetes: A Decrease in Long-Chain Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids Is Associated with a Decrease in Fatty Acid Elongases

Tikhonenko et al. (1) recently reported that dia-betes-induced changes in retinal fatty acid me-tabolism lead to a significant decrease in retinaln-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), espe-cially docos ahex aenoic acid (DHA). They proposed that these changes in fatty acid compositions may be related to the chronic inflammation that occurs in the diabetic retina. Even though they admitted it was possible that high levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) cause the degradation of the highly oxidation-prone DHA molecule, Tikhonenko et al. concluded that altered fatty acidmetabolismwas responsible for such retina-specific fatty acid changes. Recently, we reported that hard exudates in the human diabetic retina, which are believed to develop as a result of extravasation of plasma lipids, have lower levels of DHA and eicosapentaenoic acid than plasma lipids (2). This fact implies that oxidation-prone PUFAs, including DHA, in hard exudates may be more readily degraded (peroxi