The enhancement of fat oxidation during the active phase and suppression of body weight gain in glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase 1 deficient mice

We investigated whether the deletion of glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GPD) 1 would affect carbohydrate oxidation, fat oxidation, and body weight by using the GPD1 null mice (BALB/cHeA (HeA)). We found that fat oxidation in HeA mice was significantly high during the early active phase than in BALB/cBy (By) mice used as a control under ad libitum conditions. Metabolic tracer experiment revealed that fatty acid oxidation in the skeletal muscle of HeA mice tended to be high. The energy expenditure and fat oxidation in HeA mice under fasting conditions were significantly higher than that in the By mice. Moreover, we monitored body weight gain in HeA mice under ad libitum feeding and found lower body weight gain. These data indicate that GPD1 deficiency induces enhancement of fat oxidation with suppression of weight gain. We propose that GPD1 deletion contributes to the reduction of body weight gain via enhancement of fat oxidation.