The liver of the foetal guinea pig accumulates a large quantity of triacyglycerol late in gestation at the same time that adipose-tissue mass grows at its maximum rate and foetal adipose-tissue lipoprotein lipase activity and sensitivity to lipolytic hormones has substantially declined. The fatty acid for triacyglycerol synthesis is not synthesized in the foetal liver and it is unlikely that it originates from any of the foetal tissues. Before the accumulation of hepatic triacyglycerol the concentration of free fatty acids increases in both the umbilical vein and the maternal inferior vena cava. This occurs at a time when the triacyglycerol lipase activity in maternal adipose tissue is elevated and the rate of lipolysis, but not of fatty acid esterification, is higher than earlier in gestation or than in the non-pregnant state. It is proposed that the increase in lipolysis in maternal adipose tissue, brought about by an increase in circulating lipolytic hormones, mobilizes fatty acid, which passes to the foetus and is partly stored as hepatic triacylglycerol. The foetal liver effectively removes both long-and short-chain fatty acids from umbilical-vein blood. The rate of placental fatty acid transfer is more than adequate to account for the triacylglycerol accumulation.
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May 1976
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Research Article|
May 15 1976
Lipid metabolism and mobilization in the guinea pig during pregnancy
C T Jones
C T Jones
1Nuffield Institute for Medical Research, University of Oxford, Headley Way, Oxford OX3 9DS, U.K.
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Publisher: Portland Press Ltd
Online ISSN: 1470-8728
Print ISSN: 0264-6021
© 1976 London: The Biochemical Society
1976
Biochem J (1976) 156 (2): 357–365.
Citation
C T Jones; Lipid metabolism and mobilization in the guinea pig during pregnancy. Biochem J 15 May 1976; 156 (2): 357–365. doi: https://doi.org/10.1042/bj1560357
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