In vivo tracer studies of perturbed fatty acid transport and metabolism in adipose tissue.

There is a 'futile' cycle of unknown significance operating at a very rapid rate (about 40 percent that of the total central fat droplet's daily turnover rate) in white adipose tissue of normal mice. The futile cycle may be measured and studied because it occurs in a region of the adipose tissue that has poor anatomical contact with the capillaries coupled with a high affinity of the adipocytes, plasma membranes for the FFA in the ECF. The cycle is drastically inhibited in mice bearing the Ehrlich ascites carcinoma, a transplantable tumor; the inhibition is associated with a 20-fold increase in the FFA pool size of the epididymal fat pad (measured directly) and a 70 percent reduction in the TGFA pool that is involved in the cycle (estimated indirectly from kinetic measurements). However, the mass of TGFA in the central lipid droplet was being conserved in the tumor-bearing mice during this study. The TGFA pool involved in the cycle represents only about 1 percent of the total adipose tissue TGFA. The relation of this futile cycle to adipose TGFA turnover, plasma FFA turnover and oxidation to CO2, dietary sources of TGFA, and the loss (and preservation) of body fat in cancer-bearing animals was considered in terms of a simple model. Although the significance of the altered futile cycle is unknown, the new approach described here, coupled with other quantitative tracer and non-tracer measurements, may prove useful in understanding factors that lead to obesity or body fat loss.