Glucose metabolism and mobilization of fatty acids by adipose tissue from obese mice

¹ Departments of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Peter Bent Brigham Hospital; Baker Clinic Research Laboratories, New England Deaconess Hospital; and Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts

Free fatty acid mobilization and glucose metabolism to CO₂, to glyceride-glycerol, to fatty acids and to glycogen by adipose tissue in vitro were studied in genetically obese hyperglycemic mice (O-H), in goldthioglucose-injected obese Swiss mice and in their respective nonobese littermates. Tissue from O-H mice metabolizes less glucose than tissue from their nonobese littermates in absence of added hormone or in the presence of insulin (0.1 unit/ml) or epinephrine (10^–4 m). In addition, there is also a diminished ability for insulin to inhibit and for epinephrine to augment free fatty acid release. No such differences were observed between tissues from goldthioglucose-injected obese Swiss mice and tissues from their lean littermates. Possible significance of these in vitro results with regard to the pathogenesis of the obese hyperglycemic syndrome is discussed.

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