Relationships between the flux of lipid metabolism in vivo and the uncoupling of respiratory control.

The influence of dinitrophenol treatment on the balance of lipid metabolism in mouse tissues has been studied by measuring the incorporation in vivo of 3H- and 14C-labelled glycerol. Several significant alterations in the relative utilization of these labels were observed in treated animals, with the greatest influence being evident in liver lipids, and diverse responses occurring in kidney, heart, muscle and adipose tissue. These data establish that dinitrophenol perturbs lipid metabolism in all the major tissues of the animal, and point to the detailed nature of this response in the individual classes of neutral and phospholipids. The implications of individual changes have been discussed in relation to the relative roles of mitochondria and peroxisomes in the regulation of mammalian lipid metabolism.