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Nickel Deficiency Alters Liver Lipid Metabolism in Rats¹

Institut für Ernährungsphysiologie der Technischen Universität München-Weihenstephan, 85350 Freising, Germany

The present investigation was designed to examine the effect of nickel deficiency on lipid metabolism in liver and serum lipoproteins of rats. Therefore, a study over two generations was conducted feeding a nickel-deficient diet containing 13 µg/kg nickel or a nickel-adequate diet supplemented with 1 mg/kg nickel. Male 7-wk-old pups from the second offspring were studied. Pups fed a diet poor in nickel tended to have lower weight gains (P < 0.15), nickel concentrations in liver (P 0.1) and iron levels in serum (P < 0.1) than nickel-adequate rats. They were classified as nickel-deficient on the basis of significantly lower erythrocyte counts, hemoglobin concentrations, hematocrits and nickel concentrations in kidney compared with nickel-adequate rats. Nickel deficiency caused a significant triacylglycerol accumulation in liver, with greater concentrations of saturated fatty acids, monounsaturated fatty acids, and polyunsaturated fatty acids than nickel-adequate rats. Nickel deficiency had slight but significant effects on the fatty acid composition of liver total lipids and phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine. Moreover, nickel-deficient rats had significantly lower activities of the lipogenic enzymes glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase, malic enzyme and fatty acid synthase than nickel-adequate rats. Nickel-depleted pups had significantly higher concentrations of triacylglycerols and phospholipids in serum VLDL, and cholesterol in serum LDL than nickel-adequate pups. Most of these alterations in lipid metabolism are similar to those obtained in several iron-deficiency studies. Because nickel deficiency also slightly compromised iron status, it is possible that at least some of the observed alterations are due to the moderate iron deficiency.

KEY WORDS: • nickel deficiency • liver lipids • lipogenic enzymes • lipoproteins • rats

¹ The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 USC section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

² To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Manuscript received 18 December 1995. Revision accepted 6 June 1996.