The Effect of Dietary Fat Levels on Glycogen Content of the Skeletal Muscle in the Rats Adapted to Meal-feeding Schedule

Abstract

Adult rats were once fed the test diets containing the different amount of fat component in two hours after being adapted to the meal-feeding schedule. The animals were decapitated at post-prandial stage and the glycogen content, phosphorylase activities were measured in skeletal muscle. Blood glucose and serum free fatty acid levels were also measured. An increase in the amount of fat component of the diet caused to decrease the glycogen content in skeletal muscle, along with the increase in the levels of serum free fatty acids which are thought to inhibit the uptake of blood glucose to the muscle cells. The phosphorylase activity in skeletal muscle exhibited a biphasic change with the variation in the amount of dietary fat component. Up to the fifty calorie per cent of the dietary fat component, the phosphorylase activity exhibited an increase, but over the fifty per cent, the activity turned to decrease in accordance with the decrease in declined tendency of glycogen deposition in skeletal muscle.