Background/aims: It is well documented that increased fatty acids (FA) supply causes lipid accumulation and insulin resistance in skeletal muscles. Whether the same mechanism is present in the heart is still unclear. Therefore, the goal of our study was to determine the content of specific myocardial lipid fractions during feeding rats a high fat diet (HFD) for 5 weeks. Moreover, the relation between changes in myocardial lipid content, whole body insulin resistance and the expression of fatty acid transporters in each week of HFD was established.
Methods: Gas liquid chromatography and high performance liquid chromatography were used to determine the content of lipid fractions in the left ventricle. Expression of selected proteins was estimated by Western blot technique. All measurements were made after each week of HFD.
Results: As expected, lipid profile in myocardium was altered by HFD in different weeks of the study with the most intense changes in triacylglycerols, long chain fatty acid-CoA and ceramide. Furthermore, there was a significant elevation of plasmalemmal (the 4th and the 5th week) and mitochondrial expression (from the 3rd to the 5th week) of fatty acid translocase.
Conclusion: High fat diet affects myocardial lipid profile in each week of its duration and causes alternations in FA metabolism in cardiomyocytes.
© 2015 S. Karger AG, Basel.