Effect of food deprivation and hormones of glucose homeostasis on the acetyl CoA carboxylase activity in mouse brain: a potential role of acc in the regulation of energy balance

We studied the regulation of brain acetyl CoA carboxylase (ACC) activity during food deprivation and under the influence of hormones of glucose homeostasis: glucagon and insulin. Mice were deprived of food and water for time periods of 1, 3, 6, 9, 12 and 24 hours and were then allowed to re-feed for 5, 30 and 60 minutes. Mice that were deprived for up to 6 h, and then re-fed for 60 min, consumed the same amount of food compared to the ad libitum (control) animals. However, after 9 h of deprivation, mice consumed only 50% of food present even after 1 h of re-feeding, compared to the controls. The ACC activity was measured in the whole mouse brain of controls and after 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, and 24 h of food deprivation. Brain extracts assayed from control mice expressed an ACC activity of 0.988 ± 0.158 fmol/min/mg tissue without citrate and 0.941 ± 0.175 fmol/min/mg tissue with citrate. After 1 h of food deprivation, the total ACC activity without citrate decreased to 0.575 ± 0.087 fmol/min/mg and in the presence of citrate, 0.703 ± 0.036 fmol/min/mg activity was measured. The citrate-dependent ACC activity decreased over time, with only 0.478 ± 0.117 fmol/min/mg of activity remaining after 24 h. Intraperitoneal (i.p.) injections of insulin, glucagon and phosphate buffered saline (PBS) were performed and whole brain ACC activity measured. After hormone administration, there were no significant differences in ACC activity in the presence of citrate. However, in the absence of citrate, there was a significant 20% decrease in ACC activity with glucagon (1.36 ± 0.09 fmol/min/mg) and a 33% increase with insulin (2.49 ± 0.11 fmol/min/mg) injections compared to PBS controls (1.67 ± 0.08 fmol/min/mg). Neuropeptide Y (NPY) levels of corresponding brain extracts were measured by ELISA (OD) using anti-NPY antibody and showed an 18% decrease upon insulin injection (0.093 ± 0.019) and a 50% increase upon glucagon injection (0.226 ± 0.084) as compared to controls injected with PBS (0.114 ± 0.040). Thus, we postulate that the changes in ACC levels under metabolic conditions would result in a fluctuation of malonyl CoA levels, and subsequent modulation of NPY levels and downstream signaling.