Adult Triploid Rainbow Trout Can Adapt to Various Dietary Lipid Levels by Coordinating Metabolism in Different Tissues

Triploid rainbow trout can adapt to various dietary lipid levels; however, the mechanisms of systematic adaptation are not well understood. To investigate how adult triploid rainbow trout maintains lipid hemostasis under different exogenous lipid intake, a 77-day feeding trial was conducted. Diets with lipid contents of 20%, 25%, and 30% were formulated and fed to triploid rainbow trout with an initial weight of 3 ± 0.02 kg, and they were named L20, L25, and L30 group, respectively. Results showed that the condition factor, hepatosomatic index, liver color, and plasma triglyceride were comparable among three groups (p > 0.05), whereas the value of specific growth rate, viscerosomatic index, and liver glycogen content gradually increased with increasing dietary lipid level (p < 0.05). A significantly highest value of plasma glucose and nonesterified fatty acids were found in the L30 group (p < 0.05), whereas the significantly higher content of plasma total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein–cholesterol, and low-density lipoprotein–cholesterol was found in the L25 group compared with those in L20 group (p < 0.05). As for lipid deposition, abdominal adipose tissue, and muscle were the main lipid storage place for triploid rainbow trout when tissues’ weight is taken into consideration. Overall quantitative PCR showed that the lipid transport and glycolysis were upregulated, and fatty acids oxidative was downregulated in liver when fish were fed low lipid diets. It meant that the liver was the primary lipid metabolizing organ to low lipid diet feeding, which could switch energy supply between glycolysis and fatty acids oxidation. Fish fed with a moderate dietary lipid level diet could increase lipid uptake and promote lipogenesis in muscle. Abdominal adipose tissue could efficiently uptake excess exogenous free fatty acid through upregulating fatty acid uptake and synthesis de novo and then storing it in the form of triglyceride. Excess lipid uptake is preferentially stored in abdominal adipose tissue through coordinated fatty acid uptake and fatty acid synthesis de novo as dietary lipid levels increased. In summary, triploid rainbow trout can adapt to various dietary lipid levels by coordinating metabolism in different tissues.