Exercise increases the activity of triacylglycerol lipase in adipose tissue of lean and obese men

What is it about?

Exercise is known to increase the breakdown of fat, but the details of this process are not known in their entirety. By taking biopsies of subcutaneous fat from lean and obese men during moderate-intensity cycling exercise and measuring the rate of triglyceride breakdown in them, we found that this rate culminated after about 10 minutes of exercise in both groups. However, whereas the rate dropped to baseline afterward in the lean, it remained elevated throughout the 30 minutes of exercise in the obese. Nevertheless, lipid use during exercise was higher in the lean men.

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Why is it important?

Our findings show different patterns of lipolysis in lean and obese individuals. The fact that the lean men used more lipids than the obese despite a sustained lipolysis in the latter suggests some inability of obese persons to exploit the increased availability of fatty acids from adipose tissue.This may help to understand other effects of obesity on metabolism.

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