Activities of enzymes of fat and ketone-body metabolism and effects of starvation on blood concentrations of glucose and fat fuels in teleost and elasmobranch fish.

1. Activities of 3-oxo acid CoA-transferase and carnitine palmitoyltransferase together with tri- and di-acylglycerol lipase were present in red and heart muscles of the teleost fish. However, d-3-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase activity was not detectable. These results suggest that the heart and red muscles of the teleosts should be able to utilize the fat fuels triacylglycerol, fatty acids or acetoacetate, but not hydroxybutyrate. The muscles from the elasmobranchs differed in that d-3-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase and 3-oxo acid CoA-transferase activities were present, but carnitine palmitoyltransferase activity was not detectable. This suggests that ketone bodies are the most important fat fuels in elasmobranchs. 2. The concentrations of acetoacetate, 3-hydroxybutyrate, glycerol, non-esterified fatty acids and triacylglycerols were measured in blood or plasma of several species of fish (teleosts and elasmobranchs) in the fed state. Teleosts have a 10-fold higher concentration of plasma non-esterified fatty acids, but a lower blood concentration of ketone bodies; both acetoacetate and 3-hydroxybutyrate are present in blood of elasmobranchs, whereas 3-hydroxybutyrate is absent from that of the teleosts. 3. The effects of starvation (up to 150 days) on the concentrations of blood metabolites were studied in a teleost (bass) and an elasmobranch (dogfish). In the bass there was a 60% decrease in blood glucose after 100 and 150 days starvation. In dogfish there was a large increase in the concentration of ketone bodies, whereas in bass the concentration of acetoacetate (the only ketone body present) remained low (<0.04mm) throughout the period of starvation. The concentration of plasma non-esterified fatty acids increased in bass, but decreased in dogfish. These changes are consistent with the predictions based on the enzyme-activity data. 4. Starvation did not change the activities of ketone-body-utilizing enzymes or that of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase in heart and red skeletal muscles of both fish, but it decreased markedly the activity of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase in white skeletal muscle of both fish. However, in the liver of the dogfish, starvation resulted in a twofold increase in the activities of 3-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase and acetoacetyl-CoA thiolase, whereas in bass liver it decreased the activity of acetoacetyl-CoA thiolase and increased that of 3-oxo acid CoA-transferase. The activity of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase was increased twofold in the liver of bass, but was unchanged in that of the dogfish. 5. The difference in changes in concentrations of blood metabolites and enzyme activities in the two fish support the suggestion that, in starvation, ketone bodies, but not non-esterified fatty acids, are an important fuel for muscle in elasmobranchs, whereas non-esterified fatty acids, but not ketone bodies, are an important fuel in teleosts. The results are discussed in relation to the evolution of a discrete lipid-storing adipose tissue in teleosts and higher vertebrates.