Effect of nutritional status on swine adipose tissue lipolytic activities

Young swine (28 days of age) were fed an isocaloric and isonitrogenous diet with either a high fat or a low fat content for 3 to 4 weeks. The adipose tissue lipolytic rate was higher in the group fed the high fat diet. However, there was no effect of diet on the activities of several of the enzymes controlling the lipolytic process, i.e., adenylate cyclase, phosphodiesterase and hormone-sensitive lipase. No effect of diet on the activity of lipoprotein lipase was detected. Fasting for 72 hr, but not for 24 or 48 hr, caused an increase in the lipolytic rate. There was also a decrease in cell size after a 72-hr fast (P greater than .05) such that the increased rate was not significant when the data were expressed on a cell basis. Inexplicable transient changes in adenylate cyclase activity, as well as a decrease in the activity of the low affinity phosphodiesterase (doubtful physiological significance), were detected during starvation. Starvation depressed the adipose tissue lipoprotein lipase activity but had no effect on the hormone-sensitive lipase activity.