Effect of glucose and insulin on the esterification of fatty acids by isolated adipose tissue.

Although it has been clearly demonstrated that the output of free fatty acid from adipose tissue is enhanced by fasting and reduced by giving carbohydrate (1-3), the mechanism by which nutritional alteration affects the release of fatty acids from fat depots has not been defined. The reduction in lipoprotein lipase activity of adipose tissue that occurs with fasting (4) suggests that miechanisms other than appropriate change in the activity of this enzyme causes the increased release of fatty acids from fat tissue that occurs with fasting. Experiments were performed to determine whether alterations in the esterifying function contributed to the regulation of fatty acid output. Observations were made on the net change of free fatty acids during incubation of rat epididymal fat, and on the effect of glucose and insulin on this change and on the disposition of fatty acids added to the medium.