Introduction: In a variety of experimental systems, saturated and unsaturated fatty acids differ significantly in their contributions to lipotoxicity. It was reported that oleic acid prevented the lipotoxicity in rat hepatocytes. The objective of the present experiment was to evaluate the effects of oleic acid on the induced lipotoxicity by palmitic acid in cultured cells of rat heart muscle.
 
Materials & methods: Rat ventricular heart muscle cells were isolated and seeded into 24-well-plates. Cells were treated with one dose of palmitic acid (0.5 mmol/L), oleic acid (0.5 mmol/L), palmitic + oleic acid (0.5 mmol/L + 0.5 mmol/L) or left as control. Triacylglycerol (TAG), diacylglycerol (DAG), DNA fragmentation and percent of viability were measured at 24, 48 hoursafter adding fatty acids.
 
Findings: Result showed that when oleic acid co-administrated with palmitic  it would decrease  DAG (P> 0.05) and DNA fragmentation (P< 0.05) and increase  TAG (P< 0.05) and viability (P< 0.05)  in comparison with palmitic alone.
 
Discussion & conclusions: In conclusion, oleic acid would improve the lipotoxicity indices of palmitic acid in primary adult rat cardiomyocytes culture.