Regulatory impact of intra-hepatic carbohydrate and lipid metabolism

The first evidence that the liver can afferently contribute to regulatory activities comes from studies on regulation of food intake. The hepatic afferent pathway has been shown to be responsive to glucoprivic as well as lipoprivic stimuli. Similarly to regulation of food intake, it has been reported that the liver may afferently contribute to the metabolic regulation of exercise. The best reported evidence of this view is the observation that the decrease in insulin and the increase in glucagon and noradrenaline levels during exercise are diminished in hepatic vagotomized rats (Lavoie et al., 1989). The concept behind these observations is that the liver, through the existence of hepatic glucoreceptors, is responsive to a decrease in glycogen content or to some metabolites of the glycolytic chain related to liver glycogen content. There is also some evidence that lipids in the liver may have some regulatory impact inside and outside the liver. Recent interest in looking at lipid metabolism in liver has been spurred by the observation that the increased flux of lipids through the hepatic portal vein has been associated with increased risks of metabolic and cardiovascular abnormalities. To explore this avenue, a 10% triglyceride emulsion was infused into either the portal or a peripheral vein of rats for 48 hrs while another group of rats was acutely infused for 2 hrs into the portal vein. The results indicate that all of these lipid infusions resulted in an increase in liver lipid infiltration, which may be associated with the development of a state of hepatic and peripheral insulin resistance.