The Effect of Various Fatty Acids on Activity of G6pase-A and Pdk4 in Hepg2 CellA

Aims: The current study aimed to determine the effects of various fatty acids on the expression of glucose-6-phosphatase-α (G6Pase-α) and pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase 4 (PDK4). Methods: HepG2 cells were seeded in a 96-well plate with Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle Media, high glucose and bovine serum albumin with 25 µmoll of each fatty acid individually (butyric, politic, stearic, oleic, linoleic, linolenic, and arachidonic acids) for 24 hours at 37°C with and without 10 minute incubation of 100 nmol insulin. qPCR was performed using G6Pase-α and PDK4 primers; fold-changes in gene activity were determined. Results: Butyric (-2.0) and linoleic (-65.8) acids caused down regulations of G6Pase-α in the presence of insulin while linoleic (-96.6) acid caused a down regulation of PDK4 in the presence of insulin; all caused upregulations of both these genes in the absence of insulin. Conclusions: This study suggests that linolenic acid, which is present in soybeans, walnuts, and kiwi seeds, is beneficial to processing glucose and could increase insulin sensitivity through molecular influence in patients with metabolic syndrome or serve as prevention. Other fatty acids tested, with exception of butyric acid, did not show beneficial effects in the direction of decreasing glucose