An assay is described for ace@-CoA carboxylase activity in isolated hepatocytes. The assay is based on two principles: (a) The hepatocytes are made permeable by digitonin. 64 pg of digitonin per mg of celbdar protein were mosf effective in exposing enzyme activity without a significant effect on mitochondrial permeability. (b) Enzyme activity is measured by coupling the carboxylase reaction to the fatty acid synthase reaction. The advantages offered by this procedure over existing assays are: (i) rapidity, (ii) no need to prepare cell extracts, (iii) absence of product inhibition, (iv) no interference by mitochondrial enzymes, (v) useful in systems with bicarbonate buffers, and (vi) simple separation of radioactive substrate from labelled products. Using this coupled enzyme assay a good correlation was observed between changes in the activity of acetyl-CoA carboxylase and changes in the rate of fatty acid synthesis in hepatocytes as effected by short-term modulators.

Periportal and perivenous hepatocytes were isolated from rats subjected to different treatments that induce (starvation, cold exposure) or depress (refeeding after starvation) hepatic fatty acid oxidation. These experiments were designed to determine factors that may be involved in creating and maintaining the asymmetrical distribution of this metabolic pathway in the acinus of the liver. The uneven distribution of mitochondrial [14C]-palmitate oxidation within the acinus (i) was very flexible and changed markedly with the physiological status of the animal (periportal/perivenous ratio: 1.5, 2.0, 1.0 and 0.4 for fed, starved, refed and cold-exposed animals respectively), (ii) coincided with a similar zonation of carnitine palmitoyltransferase I activity in fed as well as in cold-exposed animals, (iii) was paralleled by a comparable zonation of mitochondrial 3-hydroxy-3-methyl-glutaryl-CoA synthase activity in starved animals, and (iv) was not determined by zonal differences in any of the following parameters: sensitivity of carnitine palmitoyltransferase I to malonyl-CoA, intracellular concentration of malonyl-CoA, fatty acid synthesizing capacity, acetyl-CoA carboxylase activity, fatty acid synthase activity or relative content of the two hepatic acetyl-CoA carboxylase isoforms. Unlike mitochondrial oxidation, peroxisomal [14C]palmitate oxidation was always zonated towards the perivenous zone of the liver irrespective of the physiological status of the animal. The data presented show that changes in the acinar distribution of mitochondrial long-chain fatty acid oxidation involve specific long-term mechanisms under different physiological conditions.

Rats were fed a high-fat, liquid diet containing either 36% of total calories as ethanol or an isocaloric amount of sucrose, for a period up to 35 days. At different time intervals we measured the effects of ethanol administration on the activities of a number of key enzymes involved in hepatic lipid synthesis. At the start of the experimental period the activities of acetyl-CoA carboxylase and fatty acid synthase, measured in liver homogenates, increased in the control as well as in the ethanol-fed group. After 35 days these enzyme activities were still elevated but there were no significant differences between the two groups. In hepatocytes isolated from controls as well as from ethanol-fed rats, short-term incubations with ethanol induced an increase in the rate of fatty acid synthesis and in the activities of acetyl-CoA carboxylase and fatty acid synthase. However, no alterations in the regulation of these enzymes by short-term modulators of lipogenesis were apparent in hepatocytes isolated from alcohol-treated animals. The results do not indicate a major role for the enzymes of de ncruo fatty acid synthesis in the development of the alcoholic fatty liver. The amount of liver triacylglycerols increased in ethanol-fed rats during the entire treatment period, whereas the hepatic levels of phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine were not affected by ethanol ingestion. Ethanol administration for less than 2 weeks increased the activities of phosphatidate phosphohydrolase, diacylglycerol acyltransferase, and microsomal phosphocholine cytidylyltransferase, whereas the cytosolic activity of phosphocholine cytidylyltransferase was slightly decreased. Upon prolonged ethanol administration the activities of these enzymes were slowly restored to control values after 35 days, suggesting development of some kind of adaptation. It is interesting that, although the activities of phosphatidate phosphohydrolase and diacylglycerol acyltransferase were restored to the levels found in the control rats, this effect was not accompanied by a stabilization or decrease of the concentration of hepatic triacylglycerols. 0 1988 Academic press, inc.

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