Effects of cold acclimation on lipid metabolism in adipose tissue

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Abstract
Cold acclimation is known to alter hepatic lipid metabolism. Liver slices from cold-acclimated rats have a greatly depressed capacity to synthesize long-chain fatty acids from acctate-1-C14. Since adipose tissue is the major site of lipogenic activity in the intact animal, its fatty acid synthetic capacity was studied. In contrast to the liver, it was found that adipose tissue from the cold-acclimated rat synthesized three to six times as much long-chain fatty acids per milligram of tissue protein as the adipose tissue from the control rat living at 25°C. Evidence is presented indicating that adipose tissue from cold-acclimated and control rats esterify long-chain fatty acids at the same rate. The ability of adipose tissue to oxidize palmitic acid to CO2 was found to be unaltered by cold acclimation. The fate of the large amount of fatty acid synthesized in the adipose tissue of cold-acclimated rats is discussed.