Severe dietary deficiency of polyunsaturated omega 6 fatty acids leads to the essential fatty acid deficiency syndrome that is characterized by scaly skin and excessive water loss; in humans and animal models the syndrome is fully reversed by dietary omega 6 fatty acids, particularly linoleic acid. It is proposed that this deficiency disease resembles and has a similar basis to Congenital ichthyosiform erythrodema; that is, it is at least in part due to a deficiency of linoleic acid and thereby in the EOS-based delivery of VLCFA to the stratum corneum.
