Age-dependent modifications of lipogenic enzymes

When 1-, 2- and 9-month-old rats previously adapted to a commercial stock diet were fed a fat-free diet (induction) and also when the process was reversed (repression), the turnovers of lipogenic enzymes in liver were measured by following time courses for the change of the enzyme activities. The magnitudes of the induction of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, malic enzyme and acetyl-CoA carboxylase were very high in 1-month-old rats and then decreased with aging. In the induction phase, the rates of synthesis of the enzymes were markedly decreased with increasing age as compared with the rate constants of degradation. The age-dependent alterations were not shown so much in the repression phase as in the induction phase. It is suggested that the age-dependent impairment in induction may be due to some alterations in the enzyme-forming system.