Studies on lipogenesis in vivo. Effects of starvation and re-feeding, and studies on cholesterol synthesis

1. Studies in vivo have been carried out on hepatic and extrahepatic cholesterol synthesis and also on the effects of starvation and re-feeding on both cholesterol and fatty acid synthesis. 2. In rats and mice fed on a stock diet, extrahepatic tissues accounted for about 4 times as much newly synthesized cholesterol as did the liver. The liver appeared to be somewhat more important in the rat than the mouse. Feeding with cholesterol greatly decreased and cholestyramine greatly increased hepatic cholesterol synthesis without much effect on extrahepatic synthesis. 3. Mice starved for up to 7hr. did not lose any of the ability to convert a U-(14)C]glucose meal into fat, whereas 18hr. of starvation resulted in an 80% loss of fatty acid synthesis in liver and carcass, an 80% loss in liver cholesterol synthesis and a 65% decrease in carcass cholesterol synthesis; 18hr. of food deprivation also decreased the proportion of counts in epididymal fat pads present as fat and increased the proportion present as glyceride glycerol. 4. Re-feeding for up to 7hr. restored fatty acid synthesis from a U-(14)C]glucose meal to about 50% of the values for non-starved mice but had no effect on hepatic cholesterol synthesis. The altered distribution of counts in the epididymal fat pads caused by starvation was restored to normal after feeding for 1hr.