We have reported previously that randomly interesterified triacylglycerol containing medium- and long-chain fatty acids in the same glycerol molecule (MLCT) resulted in significantly lower body fat accumulation and higher hepatic fatty acid oxidation than from long-chain triacylglycerol (LCT) in rats. To understand the metabolic changes occurring in white adipose tissue, the fatty acid oxidation and synthesis, and the adipocytokine level were measured in rats fed with MLCT or LCT for 2 weeks. In comparison with LCT, MLCT lowered not only the fatty acid synthase and glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase activities in perirenal adipose tissue, but also the serum insulin and leptin levels, in addition to significantly reducing the body fat accumulation. In contrast, fatty acid oxidation measured as the carnitine palmitoyltransferase activity in the tissue was significantly higher in the MLCT-fed rats than in the LCT-fed rats. It seems that the altered fatty acid metabolism in adipose tissue per se was also responsible for the lower adiposity by dietary MLCT.

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