Regional differences in adipocyte lactate production from glucose.

Having shown that lactate is an important product of glucose metabolism by rat epididymal adipocytes, we investigated possible regional differences in adipocyte lactate production and the role of the animals' nutritional state and stage of development. [U-14C]glucose metabolism, lactate production, and response to insulin were measured in fat cells isolated from four adipose regions (subcutaneous, epididymal, retroperitoneal, and mesenteric) from young lean and older fatter rats, killed either in the fed state or after fasting for 48 h. In the absence of insulin, mesenteric fat cells from either age group metabolized significantly more glucose per cell and converted more glucose to lactate than cells from other depots, regardless of nutritional state. Adipocytes from fasted lean rats showed a significant increase (approximately 30%) in the relative glucose conversion to lactate in all depots when compared with cells from fed lean rats. Fasting of older fatter rats, however, had limited effects on the relative adipocyte glucose conversion to lactate since lactate production was already high (40-50% of glucose metabolized). Mesenteric fat cells had the lowest relative response to insulin, possibly due to the high basal rate of glucose metabolism. These findings indicate that differences exist among adipose regions in the rates of glucose metabolism, lactate production and response to insulin. The anatomical location of the mesenteric adipose depot, coupled with a high metabolic rate and blood perfusion, suggests that mesenteric adipocytes may provide a unique and more direct contribution of metabolic substrates for hepatic metabolism than adipocytes from other depots.