Difference in Hepatic Metabolism of Long- and Medium-Chain Fatty Acids: the Role of Fatty Acid Chain Length in the Production of the Alcoholic Fatty Liver*

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Abstract
Replacement of dietary triglycerides containing long-chain fatty acids (LCFA) by triglycerides containing medium-chain fatty acids (MCFA) markedly reduced the capacity of alcohol to produce fatty liver in rats. After 24 days of ethanol and MCFA, the increase in hepatic triglycerides was only 3 times that of controls, whereas an 8-fold rise was observed after ethanol and LCFA. The triglyceride fatty acids that accumulated in the liver after feeding of ethanol with MCFA contained only a small percentage of the MCFA; their composition also differed strikingly from that of adipose lipids. To study the mechanism of the reduction in steatosis, we compared oxidation to CO2 and incorporation into esterified lipids of 14C-labeled chylomicrons or palmitate-14C (representing LCFA), and of octanoate-14C (as MCFA) in liver slices and isolated perfused livers, in the presence or absence of ethanol. Ethanol depressed the oxidation of all substrates to CO2; MCFA, however, was much more oxidized and reciprocally much less esterified than LCFA, with a 100-fold difference in the ratio of esterified lipid-14C to 14CO2. Furthermore, in hepatic microsomal fractions incubated with α-glycerophosphate, octanoate was much less esterified than palmitate. This propensity of MCFA to oxidation rather than esterification represents a likely explanation for the reduction in alcoholic steatosis upon replacement of dietary LCFA by MCFA.