Developmental changes in the activities of some enzymes associated with hepatic lipogenesis in the suckling rat

Hormonal control of specific gene expression in the rat liver during the suckling-weaning transition

In the rat, the suckling-weaning transition is accompanied by marked changes in nutrition. During the suckling period, the pups are fed with milk which is a high-fat low-carbohydrate diet. At weaning, milk is progressively replaced by the rat chow which is a high-carbohydrate low-fat diet. This is accompanied by considerable hormonal modifications: an increase in plasma insulin and a decrease in plasma glucagon concentrations, as well as by marked changes in metabolic pathways in liver: decrease in hepatic gluconeogenesis, increase in lipogenesis, and appearance of liver glucokinase. Most of the data concerning these changes are related to maximal activity of enzymes. The recent availability of specific cDNA probes for phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase, acetyl-CoA carboxylase, fatty acid synthase and glucokinase has allowed study of the role of pancreatic hormones and of nutrition in the changes of the expression of these genes at weaning in the rat.

A comparison of lipid metabolism in hepatocytes isolated from fed and starved neonatal and adult rats

1. The utilization of [1-14C]palmitate by hepatocytes prepared from fed and starved neonatal and adult rats has been examined by measuring isotopic incorporation into various products. 2. In cells from fed adult rats the principal products were esters (triglycerides and phospholipids) but ketone bodies were the main metabolic end products in cells from starved adult and fed and starved neonatal rats. Production of triglycerides exceeded that of phospholipids in fed adult cells whereas phospholipid formation always predominated in neonatal cells. 3. The high rate of fatty acid oxidation and hence NADH formation by neonatal cells is reflected by a lower acetoacetate--3-hydroxybutyrate ratio at the earlier stages of incubation of neonatal cells. 4. The addition of glycerol modified quantitatively the products of palmitate metabolism by adult hepatocytes but no such effects were observed with neonatal cells. 5. Compared with adult cells, neonatal hepatocytes showed very low rates of lipogenesis that were only enhanced a little by addition of lactate/pyruvate and did not show any effects of glucose concentration upon incorporation of tritium from 3H2O into lipids.