Different physiological traits underlying increased body fat of fatty (fa/fa) and heterozygous (+/fa) rats

To find out whether the most characteristic physiological traits distinguishing suckling-age fa/fa pups from lean littermates also differ between +/+ and +/fa littermates, we analyzed the body composition and cold defense of 7- and 16-day-old pups and the plasma concentrations of insulin, glucose, triglycerides, and free fatty acids in 16-day-old pups. Zucker rat x Brown Norway hybrid pups were genotyped by using a molecular marker within 0.5 cM of the fa gene. At both ages the +/fa pups had significantly more body fat than their +/+ littermates. At 7 days this difference was as large as that between +/fa and fa/fa pups, but at 16 days it was only one-seventh of the fa/fa vs. +/fa difference. In contrast, there were no heterozygote differences for three parameters that show crucial abnormalities in the fa/fa pups: thermoregulatory thermogenesis and plasma concentrations of insulin and triglycerides. The physiological mechanisms underlying the increased fat content of +/fa pups thus differ from those known to fuel most of the excessive fat deposition of their fa/fa littermates.