Incorporation of Intravenously Injected Acetate-2-14C into Tissue Lipids of Hypothermic Hamsters 1

Summary The in vivo synthesis of lipids from acetate-2-14C is drastically reduced in hamster tissues at 7 vs 37° body temperature. The most active tissues at the 7° temperature are the brain, liver, kidney, and small intestine, on the basis of amount of 14C activity found in those tissues per gram of tissue. In these tissues, a gradual increase in lipid-14C occurs at a body temperature of 7° following acetate-2-14C injection. At a 7° body temperature a smaller percentage of small intestine phospholipids were synthesized from acetate-2-14C, with a corresponding increase in the percentage of total 14C activity found as neutral lipid-14C. Of the neutral lipids in the small intestines, the greatest percentages of 14C activity appeared in the free fatty acids and diglycerides. There was no discernible change in percentage of carcass fat either between the hypothermic and normothermic hamsters, or among the hypothermic hamsters over the 18-hr time period studied.