AJP - Endocrinology and Metabolism, Vol 254, Issue 2 E181-E186, Copyright © 1988 by American Physiological Society
Adaptive changes in individual acyl-CoA esters from hamster BAT during cold acclimation
S. Donatello, T. Spennetta, P. Strieleman, G. Woldegiorgis and E. Shrago
Department of Medicine, University of Wisconsin, Madison 53706.
Long-chain fatty acyl-CoA esters (LCFACoAE) were extracted from
freeze-clamped powdered brown adipose tissue (BAT) obtained from
thermoneutral control and cold-acclimated hamsters and the CoA esters
individually separated by high-performance liquid chromatography. LCFACoAE
of carbon chain length C12 to C20 were identified by increasing column
retention time in the following order: C12:0, C14:1, C14:0, C16:1, C18:2,
C16:0, C18:1, C18:0, and C20:4. The mean total LCFACoAE concentrations were
235 +/- 40 nmol/g protein for the control hamsters and 648 +/- 105 nmol/g
protein for the 22-day cold-acclimated hamsters. A rapid fourfold increase
in the levels of C16:0, C18:0, and C18:1 occurred within hours after
initiation of the cold temperature, whereas the concentrations of the other
six LCFACoAE either increased only slightly or remained unchanged. Almost
50% of the total LCFACoAE in the BAT of cold-acclimated hamsters was made
up of C16:0, C18:0, and C18:1. These results, which demonstrate some
dynamic changes in adipose tissue LCFACoAE, are consistent with their
proposed role in the initiation and maintenance of BAT thermogenesis.
