Inhibition of Liver Lipogenesis by Dietary Polyunsaturated Fat in Severely Diabetic Rats

Abstract

Diabetic and nondiabetic rats were used to ascertain if dietary polyunsaturated fats inhibited hepatic acetyl-CoA carboxylase and fatty acid synthetase in insulin-insufficient rats as had been previously shown for normal rats. Male rats were rendered diabetic (400–600 mg glucose/100 mL blood) with streptozotocin and were fed a high fructose fat-free diet. Safflower oil or palmitate (or tallow) was added to the basal fructose diet at a level to supply 12, 24 or 36% additional digestible energy. Compared with normal rats, diabetic rats had significantly lower hepatic fatty acid biosynthesis, but the proportion of acetyl-CoA carboxylase expressing catalytic activity as determined by the avidin-inactivation technique was unaffected by diabetes. Diabetes did not lower the maximal activities of carboxylase and fatty acid synthetase. Moreover, the activities of these enzymes greatly exceeded the rate of fatty acid synthesis. At all levels of fat supplementation, the high linoleate safflower oil consistently resulted in a 50% lower rate of fatty acid biosynthesis than did comparable levels of tallow or palmitate. Safflower oil was also a more effective suppressor of the activities of acetyl-CoA carboxylase and fatty acid synthetase than the saturated fats. Our data suggest that the greater inhibition of hepatic fatty acid biosynthesis by polyenoic fatty acids is an insulin-independent mechanism.