Go to JCI Insight
  • About
  • Editors
  • Consulting Editors
  • For authors
  • Publication ethics
  • Alerts
  • Advertising
  • Job board
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • Current issue
  • Past issues
  • By specialty
    • COVID-19
    • Cardiology
    • Gastroenterology
    • Immunology
    • Metabolism
    • Nephrology
    • Neuroscience
    • Oncology
    • Pulmonology
    • Vascular biology
    • All ...
  • Videos
    • Conversations with Giants in Medicine
    • Author's Takes
  • Reviews
    • View all reviews ...
    • Lung inflammatory injury and tissue repair (Jul 2023)
    • Immune Environment in Glioblastoma (Feb 2023)
    • Korsmeyer Award 25th Anniversary Collection (Jan 2023)
    • Aging (Jul 2022)
    • Next-Generation Sequencing in Medicine (Jun 2022)
    • New Therapeutic Targets in Cardiovascular Diseases (Mar 2022)
    • Immunometabolism (Jan 2022)
    • View all review series ...
  • Viewpoint
  • Collections
    • In-Press Preview
    • Commentaries
    • Research letters
    • Letters to the editor
    • Editorials
    • Viewpoint
    • Top read articles
  • Clinical Medicine
  • JCI This Month
    • Current issue
    • Past issues

  • Current issue
  • Past issues
  • Specialties
  • Reviews
  • Review series
  • Conversations with Giants in Medicine
  • Author's Takes
  • In-Press Preview
  • Commentaries
  • Research letters
  • Letters to the editor
  • Editorials
  • Viewpoint
  • Top read articles
  • About
  • Editors
  • Consulting Editors
  • For authors
  • Publication ethics
  • Alerts
  • Advertising
  • Job board
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
Top
  • View PDF
  • Download citation information
  • Send a comment
  • Share this article
  • Terms of use
  • Standard abbreviations
  • Need help? Email the journal
  • Top
  • Abstract
  • Version history
  • Article usage
  • Citations to this article

Advertisement

Research Article Free access | 10.1172/JCI119546

The insulinotropic potency of fatty acids is influenced profoundly by their chain length and degree of saturation.

D T Stein, B E Stevenson, M W Chester, M Basit, M B Daniels, S D Turley, and J D McGarry

Department of Internal Medicine, Center for Diabetes Research, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Dallas, Texas 75235, USA.

Find articles by Stein, D. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar

Department of Internal Medicine, Center for Diabetes Research, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Dallas, Texas 75235, USA.

Find articles by Stevenson, B. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar

Department of Internal Medicine, Center for Diabetes Research, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Dallas, Texas 75235, USA.

Find articles by Chester, M. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar

Department of Internal Medicine, Center for Diabetes Research, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Dallas, Texas 75235, USA.

Find articles by Basit, M. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar

Department of Internal Medicine, Center for Diabetes Research, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Dallas, Texas 75235, USA.

Find articles by Daniels, M. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar

Department of Internal Medicine, Center for Diabetes Research, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Dallas, Texas 75235, USA.

Find articles by Turley, S. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar

Department of Internal Medicine, Center for Diabetes Research, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Dallas, Texas 75235, USA.

Find articles by McGarry, J. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar

Published July 15, 1997 - More info

Published in Volume 100, Issue 2 on July 15, 1997
J Clin Invest. 1997;100(2):398–403. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI119546.
© 1997 The American Society for Clinical Investigation
Published July 15, 1997 - Version history
View PDF
Abstract

Lowering of the elevated plasma FFA concentration in 18- 24-h fasted rats with nicotinic acid (NA) caused complete ablation of subsequent glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS). Although the effect of NA was reversed when the fasting level of total FFA was maintained by coinfusion of soybean oil or lard oil (plus heparin), the more saturated animal fat proved to be far more potent in enhancing GSIS. We therefore examined the influence of individual fatty acids on insulin secretion in the perfused rat pancreas. When present in the perfusion fluid at 0.5 mM (in the context of 1% albumin), the fold stimulation of insulin release from the fasted pancreas in response to 12.5 mM glucose was as follows: octanoate (C8:0), 3.4; linoleate (C18:2 cis/cis), 5.3; oleate (C18:1 cis), 9.4; palmitate (C16:0), 16. 2; and stearate (C18:0), 21.0. The equivalent value for palmitoleate (C16:1 cis) was 3.1. A cis--> trans switch of the double bond in the C16:1 and C18:1 fatty acids had only a modest, if any, impact on their potency. A similar profile emerged with regard to basal insulin secretion (3 mM glucose). When a subset of these fatty acids was tested in pancreases from fed animals, the same rank order of effectiveness at both basal and stimulatory levels of glucose was seen. The findings reaffirm the essentiality of an elevated plasma FFA concentration for GSIS in the fasted rat. They also show, however, that the insulinotropic effect of individual fatty acids spans a remarkably broad range, increasing and decreasing dramatically with chain length and degree of unsaturation, respectively. Thus, for any given level of glucose, insulin secretion will be influenced greatly not only by the combined concentration of all circulating (unbound) FFA, but also by the makeup of this FFA pool. Both factors will likely be important considerations in understanding the complex interplay between the nature of dietary fat and whole body insulin, glucose, and lipid dynamics.

Version history
  • Version 1 (July 15, 1997): No description

Article tools

  • View PDF
  • Download citation information
  • Send a comment
  • Share this article
  • Terms of use
  • Standard abbreviations
  • Need help? Email the journal

Metrics

  • Article usage
  • Citations to this article

Go to

  • Top
  • Abstract
  • Version history
Advertisement
Advertisement

Copyright © 2023 American Society for Clinical Investigation
ISSN: 0021-9738 (print), 1558-8238 (online)

Sign up for email alerts