Triglyceride metabolism in human liver: studies on hepatic phosphatidic-acid phosphatase in obese and non-obese subjects.

According to current concepts, soluble phosphatidic-acid phosphatase, converting phosphatidic acid into a diglyceride, is a rate-limiting enzyme in the hepatic biosynthesis of triglycerides. The present paper is the first report on this enzyme in human liver. The enzyme activity was assayed in ammonium sulphate precipitates of cytosol obtained from human liver biopsies. The activity was stimulated by preincubation with alkaline phosphatase and inhibited by Mg-ATP, suggesting that phosphorylation-dephosphorylation may be of some importance for the expression of the activity of the enzyme. When assayed under optimal conditions, the activity obtained in liver biopsies from normal-weight gallstone patients averaged 12.8 +/- 2.0 nmol min-1 (mg protein)-1 (mean +/- SEM) (n = 17). The enzyme activity was slightly higher in liver biopsies from morbidly obese subjects 16.4 +/- 2.8 nmol min-1 (mg protein)-1 (n = 14). The difference between the two groups of subjects was probably in part sex-dependent and was not statistically significant. A similar small and insignificant difference between the two groups of subjects was found when the enzyme activity was assayed in the maximally stimulated state--i.e. after incubation with alkaline phosphate. These findings suggest that an increased capacity of the soluble phosphatidic-acid phosphatase is not of major importance for the increased triglyceride synthesis known to occur in obesity. Other factors (i.e. availability of substrate and cofactors) may be of greater importance.