Some lipogenic enzyme activities in rat livers in which an excessive fat accumulation occurred due to feeding low-level amino acid mixture diets.

In liver homogenates of rats fed a low-level diet of Wheat-Rice- or Miyazaki-pattern amino acid mixture, some enzymes such as glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, ATP citrate lyase, fatty acid-synthesizing enzymes, malic enzyme and L-alpha-glycerophosphate dehydrogenase, whose activities are indicators of lipogenesis have been determined from the viewpoint of the mechanisms producing fatty liver. In the early experimental period, malic enzyme activity increased more markedly in rats fed low amino acid mixture diets than in the control group, and L-alpha-glycerophosphate dehydrogenase activity in the liver increased slightly. Conversely, ATP citrate lyase and fatty acid-synthesizing enzyme activities remained almost at control levels, or glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase activity tended to decrease. These results suggest that some other associated factors, such as depression of the lipid transfer system in the liver rather than accelerated lipogenesis itself, may be the main cause of the fatty livers produced under these nutritional conditions.