In this study, published in the journal Nutrition Research, American researchers tested their hypothesis that increasing polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) intake will increase peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor delta (PPARdelta) expression and activity, and examined the effect of PUFA-enriched oils on muscle PPARdelta expression. One of the oils they tested was cottonseed oil (CSO) which contains dihydrosterculic acid (DHSA), a fatty acid that helps prevent the accumulation of triglycerides in the body.
Male mice were used for the experiment; they were fed either chow, CSO-enriched diets, saturated fat (SFA)-enriched diets, or linoleic acid-enriched diets for four weeks.
Researchers found that mice fed a CSO-enriched diet displayed no change in PPARdelta expression in the muscles.
Mice that were fed chow and a CSO-enriched diet did not differ in terms of food intake, body weight, fasting glucose, glucose tolerance, and energy expenditure. SFA-fed mice had increased fat mass while mice fed a linoleic acid-enriched diet had low glucose tolerance.
PPARdelta expression was elevated in the liver of CSO-fed mice together with its transcriptional coactivator Pgc-1.
Metabolic analyses revealed that the livers of CSO-fed mice and chow-fed mice were similar but significantly differed from the livers of SFA-fed mice and linoleic acid-fed mice.
CSO-fed mice exhibited low desaturase activity due to the presence of DHSA. DHSA alone had the same effect on PPARdelta expression and stearoyl-CoA desaturase-1 expression. Stearoyl-CoA desaturase-1 is a key enzyme in fatty acid metabolism.
Based on their findings, the researchers concluded that DHSA from CSO can be used to increase PPARdelta expression and simultaneously lower liver stearoyl-CoA desaturase-1 activity.
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Journal Reference:
Paton CM, Vaughan RA, Alpergin ESS, Assadi-Porter F, Dowd MK. DIHYDROSTERCULIC ACID FROM COTTONSEED OIL SUPPRESSES DESATURASE ACTIVITY AND IMPROVES LIVER METABOLOMIC PROFILES OF HIGH-FAT–FED MICE. Nutrition Research. September 2017;45:52–62. DOI: 10.1016/j.nutres.2017.06.008