Effect of dietary conjugated linoleic acid isomers on lipid metabolism in hamsters fed high-carbohydrate and high-fat diets

Dietary conjugated linoleic acids (CLA) have been reported to have a number of isomer-dependent effects on lipid metabolism including reduction in adipose tissue deposition, changes in plasma lipoprotein concentrations and hepatic lipid accumulation. The aim of this study was to compare the effect of individual CLA isomers against lipogenic and high 'Western' fat background diets. Golden Syrian hamsters were fed a high-carbohydrate rodent chow or chow supplemented with 17.25% fat formulated to represent the type and amount of fatty acids found in a typical 'Western' diet (including 0.2% cholesterol). Diets were further supplemented with 0.25% (w/w) rapeseed oil, cis9, trans11 (c9,t11)-CLA or trans10, cis12 (t10,c12)-CLA. Neither isomer had a significant impact on plasma lipid or lipoprotein concentrations. The t10,c12-CLA isomer significantly reduced perirenal adipose tissue depot mass. While adipose tissue acetyl CoA carboxylase and fatty acid synthase mRNA concentrations (as measured by quantitative PCR) were unaffected by CLA, lipoprotein lipase mRNA was specifically reduced by t10,c12-CLA, on both back.-round diets (P<0.001). This was associated with a specific reduction of sterol regulatory element binding protein 1c expression in perirenal adipose tissue (P=0.018). The isomers appear to have divergent effects on liver TAG content with c9,t11-CLA producing lower concentrations than t10,c12-CLA. We conclude that t10,c12-CLA modestly reduces adipose tissue deposition in the Golden Syrian hamster independently of background diet and this may possibly result from reduced uptake of lipoprotein fatty acids, as a consequence of reduced lipoprotein lipase gene expression.