Adaptive changes in individual acyl-CoA esters from hamster BAT during cold acclimation.

Long-chain fatty acyl-CoA esters (LCFACoAE) were extracted from freeze-clamped powdered brown adipose tissue (BAT) obtained from thermoneutral control and cold-acclimated hamsters and the CoA esters individually separated by high-performance liquid chromatography. LCFACoAE of carbon chain length C12 to C20 were identified by increasing column retention time in the following order: C12:0, C14:1, C14:0, C16:1, C18:2, C16:0, C18:1, C18:0, and C20:4. The mean total LCFACoAE concentrations were 235 +/- 40 nmol/g protein for the control hamsters and 648 +/- 105 nmol/g protein for the 22-day cold-acclimated hamsters. A rapid fourfold increase in the levels of C16:0, C18:0, and C18:1 occurred within hours after initiation of the cold temperature, whereas the concentrations of the other six LCFACoAE either increased only slightly or remained unchanged. Almost 50% of the total LCFACoAE in the BAT of cold-acclimated hamsters was made up of C16:0, C18:0, and C18:1. These results, which demonstrate some dynamic changes in adipose tissue LCFACoAE, are consistent with their proposed role in the initiation and maintenance of BAT thermogenesis.