ARS | Publication request: EFFECT OF UNSATURATED FATTY ACIDS ON PORCINE ADIPOCYTE DIFFERENTIATION

Submitted to: Nutrition Research
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: March 24, 2003
Publication Date: August 1, 2003
Citation: Ding ST, Wang JC, Mersmann HJ. Effect of unsaturated fatty acids on porcine adipocyte differentation. Nutrition Research 23:1059-1069, 2003

Interpretive Summary: The major components of fat are long-chain fatty acids. The fatty acid composition of fat from different sources is decidedly divergent. For example, plant fats or oils usually contain relatively large amounts of unsaturated fatty acids, whereas animal fats usually contain relatively large amounts of saturated fatty acids. Feeding of some fats to rodents and other mammals leads to less fat deposition than feeding of other fats. Fats with a large amount of alpha-linolenic acid (relatively high degree of unsaturation) generally lead to less fat deposition than similar fats with a lesser degree of unsaturation (oleic or linoleic acids). Porcine preadipocytes (cells destined to differentiate into adipocytes) were differentiated in the presence of oleic, linoleic, or linolenic acids in culture. At equal concentrations, linolenic acid caused less differentiation than oleic or linoleic acids. The results suggest that dietary fatty acid composition may be a factor in regulating the deposition of fat.

Technical Abstract: Long-chain fatty acids (FAs) stimulate clonal preadipocyte differentiation with alpha-linolenic acid (C18:3) being very potent. Porcine preadipocytes were differentiated for 24 h with 0, 50, 100, or 300 micrometer oleic acid (C18:1), linoleic acid (C18:2), or C18:3. Differentiation was increased to a greater extent by C18:1 and C18:2 than by C18:3 (P<0.01) suggesting species differences. The increase in mRNA for the transcription factors, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma), CCAAT-enhancer binding protein alpha, and for the adipocyte-characteristic protein, lipoprotein lipase was less than twofold in all cases. Increased differentiation with small increases in PPARgamma mRNA suggests the FAs provided ligand to activate PPARgamma already present at initiation of differentiation when ligand synthesis was minimal. Fatty acid binding protein mRNA was increased several-fold by all three FAs. If these results extrapolate to the intact animal, they suggest the dietary FA composition will differentially affect fat deposition in the pig.