Metabolic effects of tumour necrosis factor-alpha on rat brown adipose tissue.

Intravenous administration of a single dose (100 micrograms/kg bw) of recombinant tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF, cachectin) to rats increased the rate of in vitro fatty acid synthesis in interscapular brown adipose tissue (IBAT) from both glucose and alanine, without changes in the oxidation of these substrates to 14CO2. Lactate production and glycerol release were also unaffected by treatment with the cytokine. Additionally, the presence of TNF in the incubation media did not affect fatty acid synthesis, suggesting an indirect effect of the cytokine. The activities of different enzymes of glucose and alanine metabolism such as hexokinase, phosphofructokinase, pyruvate kinase, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and alanine transaminase, did not suffer changes as a consequence of TNF administration. The same applied to the enzymatic activities involved in fatty acid synthesis such as fatty acid synthase, acetyl-CoA carboxylase and ATP-citrate lyase. Conversely, citrate levels in IBAT were increased in animals treated with TNF, suggesting that it could be the cause for the increased fatty acid synthesis in this tissue.