AJP - Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, Vol 264, Issue 4 747-R753, Copyright © 1993 by American Physiological Society

ARTICLES

The effect of a low essential fatty acid diet on hibernation in marmots

G. L. Florant, L. Hester, S. Ameenuddin and D. A. Rintoul
Department of Biology, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122.

We investigated the effect of an essential fatty acid (EFA)-deficient diet on hibernation patterns in yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventris). Fatty acid (FA) analysis of white adipose tissue (WAT) from animals maintained for 2 mo on the EFA-deficient diet suggested that little or no EFAs were present in the gonadal or omental fat depots. Hibernation about lengths of the EFA-deficient animals were significantly shorter (P < 0.01) than control animals. Stated another way, these animals aroused twice as frequently compared with control animals and used more energy to survive winter. Analysis of WAT composition and blood samples revealed that animals were highly lipolytic during winter. Furthermore, the release of FAs was not random: linoleate (cis-9,cis-12-octadecadienoic acid; 18:2, a diene EFA) was significantly (P < 0.05) under-represented in venous outflow from the gonadal WAT pad based on the percentage of this species in WAT. The concentration of saturated FAs was higher than that predicted from the WAT-FA composition. We conclude that linoleate is preferentially retained within WAT and that concentrations of this EFA may influence hibernation behavior. Thus EFAs may have a thermoregulatory role in hibernation in addition to their role as essential precursors for physiologically important lipids after hibernation is over.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				T. Ruf and W. Arnold Effects of polyunsaturated fatty acids on hibernation and torpor: a review and hypothesis Am J Physiol Regulatory Integrative Comp Physiol, March 1, 2008; 294(3): R1044 - R1052. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]