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ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

Lipid Metabolism in the Adipose Tissues of a Carnivore, the Raccoon Dog, During Prolonged Fasting

Anne-Mari Mustonen^*,1, Reijo Käkelä^*,, Anne Käkelä^*, Teija Pyykönen, Jari Aho and Petteri Nieminen^*

^* Faculty of Biosciences, University of Joensuu, Joensuu, FIN-80101, Finland; Institute of Biomedicine, Department of Biochemistry and Developmental Biology, Biomedicum Helsinki, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, FIN-00014, Finland; Institute of Applied Biotechnology, University of Kuopio, Kuopio, FIN-70211, Finland; and Municipal Veterinary Clinic of Joensuu, Jokikatu 7, Joensuu, FIN-80220, Finland

To whom requests for reprints should be addressed at ¹ Faculty of Biosciences, University of Joensuu, PO Box 111, FIN-80101, Joensuu, Finland. E-mail: ammusto{at}cc.joensuu.fi

Previous studies on laboratory rodents, rabbits, and humans have demonstrated that adipose tissue fatty acid (FA) mobilization is selective, and its efficiency is related to the molecular structure of FAs. This study was undertaken to find out whether such preferences of FA mobilization are a general feature of mammalian white adipose tissue (WAT) and are also manifested in carnivores. Fractional mobilization of a wide spectrum of FAs was studied by gas-liquid chromatography from six subcutaneous (scapular, rump, ventral) and intra-abdominal (omental, mesenteric, retroperitoneal) WAT depots of raccoon dogs (Nyctereutes procyonoides) fed or fasted for 2 months. Fasting stimulated the mobilization of shorter-chain saturated, mono-unsaturated (MUFAs), and polyunsaturated FAs (PUFAs). The effects of unsaturation and the position of the first double bond from the methyl end were more inconsistent. The effect of double-bond position may be due to chain shortening of longer-chain MUFAs and preferential utilization of n-3 PUFAs over n-6 PUFAs. Moreover, there were site-specific differences in fractional mobilization, the omental adipose tissue being the most divergent. The in vivo FA mobilization from the regional WAT depots of a carnivore was selective, and the molecular structure of the FA affected its efficiency.

Key Words: double-bond position • fasting • fat depot location • fatty acid molecular structure • selective mobilization of fatty acids