Effect of the fatty acid composition of ingested fats on rat liver intermediary metabolism.

The influence of a single load of medium chain triglycerides (MCT) or long chain triglycerides (LCT) on different intermediary metabolites of the rat liver was studied. Resultes showed that acetyl-CoA increased more after MCT than after LCT. MCT are more ketogenic than LCT. Mitochondrial and cytoplasmic redox state was greatly reduced after MCT. It is particularly interesting to note that MCT produced an increase in malate and citrate levels, whereas LCT had only a minor influence on these substances.