Lipoprotein lipase and hepatic lipase in Wistar and Sprague-Dawley rat tissues. Differences in the effects of gender and fasting.

To evaluate the effects of strain, gender and fasting in the regulation of lipoprotein lipase (LPL) and hepatic lipase (HL) activities were measured in tissues of male and female Wistar and Sprague-Dawley rats after feeding or a 24-h starvation period. It is noteworthy that an effect of gender on LPL activity was observed in Wistar, but not in Sprague-Dawley rats, not only in the basal (fed) activity in several tissues, such as white and brown adipose tissues, heart, and brain, but also in response to fasting which affected LPL activity in brown adipose tissue, heat and lung of female but not of male Wistar rats. By contrast, HL activity in liver, plasma and adrenals of Sprague-Dawley rats was higher in females than in males. No effect of gender on HL activity was observed in Wistar rats. Our results indicate that differences exist between Wistar and Sprague-Dawley rats in the regulation of both LPL and HL. Some of the contradictory results found in the literature may be explained by the differences between rat strains and gender, as well as differences in the nutritional status of the animals.