In mice with genetic obesity, the plasma concentration of total free fatty acid (FFA) was not significantly raised, and no abnormality was detected in the response of the plasma level of FFA to noradrenaline. The plasma concentration of immunoreactive insulin (IRI) in the fed state was higher in obese than lean mice, even if glucose was given to lean mice. The content of liver glycogen was consistently higher in obese mice.
Following deprivation of food, plasma concentration of IRI decreased in obese mice, and that of FFA rose at the same rate as in lean mice. In obese mice which had been fasted for twenty-four hours or fed on a restricted quantity of food, the plasma level of IRI remained higher than in lean mice.
On oral administration of glucose to fasted mice, the decline in plasma FFA concentration, compared to that in animals which received saline, was similar in obese and lean mice. In response to glucose, the plasma IRI concentration increased rapidly in obese mice.
These results suggest that there is no primary impairment of adipose tissue triglyceride breakdown (“lipolysis”) in genetically obese mice, and that the hypersecretion of insulin in response to ingestion of food may more closely reflect their primary disorder.
