Effects of type of dietary fat and carbohydrate on gluconeogenesis in isolated hepatocytes from BHE rats.

The effect of type of dietary fat and carbohydrate on gluconeogenesis and ketogenesis by isolated hepatocytes was studied. BHE male weanling rats were fed one of six diets: 64% sucrose or cornstarch with 6% corn oil, 6% hydrogenated coconut oil, or a 1:2 mixture of the two oils. At 100 d of age the rats were anesthetized, and isolated hepatocytes were prepared. The cells were incubated with lactate, lactate and lysine, lactate and pyruvate, lactate and palmitate, lactate and linoleate, lactate and epinephrine or lactate and glucagon. The hepatocytes from the rats that had been fed hydrogenated coconut oil produced significantly more glucose than the rats fed either corn oil or a mixture of oils, regardless of the type of carbohydrate fed. Each of the additives in turn, except for epinephrine, stimulated glucose production above that obtained with lactate alone. However, when expressed as a percent increase above that from lactate there was no effect of fat type on the magnitude of this stimulation. We interpret these data to mean that, although the metabolic pathways function equally well in the hepatocytes isolated from rats fed hydrogenated coconut oil and rats fed corn oil, the flux through these pathways can be influenced by the type of dietary fat.