Gradient of fatty acids from blood plasma to skeletal muscle in dogs.

In anesthetized dogs, the amount of fatty acyl moieties in the fatty acid, triacylglycerol, and phospholipid fractions of arterial blood and biceps femoris muscle has been determined to delineate the presence of a fatty acid gradient from blood to skeletal muscle tissue, if any. The content of fatty acids in biceps femoris muscle was found to be very low (approximately 0.1% of total amount of unesterified and esterified fatty acyl moieties in the tissue sample). The ratio of the content of fatty acids (nmol/ml) in arterial plasma and the tissue level of fatty acids (nmol/g wet weight) was approximately 17. This finding supports the notion that a fatty acid gradient from the vascular compartment to the skeletal muscle fibers might be one of the driving forces of net extraction of fatty acids by skeletal muscle.