Hepatic β-oxidation and carnitine palmitoyltransferase I in neonatal pigs following dietary treatments of clofibric acid, isoproterenol and medium

44 A suckling piglet model was used to study nutritional and pharmacologic means of 46 stimulating hepatic fatty acid β-oxidation. Newborn pigs were fed milk diets containing either longor medium-chain triglycerides (MCT). The long-chain control diet was 48 supplemented further with clofibric acid (0.5%) or isoproterenol (40 ppm), and growth was monitored for 10 to 12 d. Clofibrate increased rates of hepatic peroxisomal and 50 mitochondrial β-oxidation of [1-C]-palmitate by 60 and 186 %, respectively. Furthermore, malonyl-CoA sensitive carnitine palmitoyltransferase (CPT I) activity increased 64 % (P < 52 0.05) in pigs receiving clofibrate. Increased CPT I activity was not congruent with changes in message, as elevated abundance of CPT I mRNA was not detected (P = 0.16) when 54 assessed by qRT-PCR. Neither rates of ß-oxidation nor CPT activities were affected by dietary MCT or by isoproterenol treatment (P > 0.1). Collectively, these findings indicate 56 that clofibrate effectively induced hepatic CPT activity concomitant with increased fatty acid β-oxidation. 58