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All issues Volume 44 / No 2 (March-April 2004) Reprod. Nutr. Dev., 44 2 (2004) 131-140 Abstract
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Issue
Reprod. Nutr. Dev.
Volume 44, Number 2, March-April 2004
Page(s) 131 - 140
DOI https://doi.org/10.1051/rnd:2004020
Reprod. Nutr. Dev. 44 (2004) 131-140
DOI: 10.1051/rnd:2004020

Myristic acid increases $\Delta$6-desaturase activity in cultured rat hepatocytes

Sophie Jan, Hervé Guillou, Sabine D'Andrea, Stéphanie Daval, Monique Bouriel, Vincent Rioux and Philippe Legrand

Laboratoire de Biochimie, INRA-ENSA, 65 rue de Saint-Brieuc, CS84215, 35042 Rennes, France

(Received 5 January 2004; accepted 26 January 2004)

Abstract - In order to study the effects of saturated fatty acids on $\Delta$6-desaturase activity, rat hepatocytes in primary culture were incubated with lauric (C12:0), myristic (C14:0) or palmitic (C16:0) acids. After optimization, the standard in vitro conditions for the measurement of $\Delta$6-desaturase activity were as follows: 60 $\mu$mol·L-1 $\alpha$-linolenic acid (C18:3n-3), reaction time of 20 min and protein content of 0.4 mg. Data showed that cell treatment with 0.5 mmol·L-1 myristic acid during 43 h specifically increased $\Delta$6-desaturase activity. This improvement, reproducible for three substrates of $\Delta$6-desaturase, i.e. oleic acid (C18:1n-9), linoleic acid (C18:2n-6) and $\alpha$-linoleic acid (C18:3n-3) was dose-dependent in the range 0.1-0.5 mmol·L-1 myristic acid concentration.


Key words: myristic acid / $\Delta$6-desaturase / saturated fatty acids / cultured rat hepatocytes

Corresponding author: Philippe Legrand philippe.legrand@agrocampus-rennes.fr

© INRA, EDP Sciences 2004