PHOSPHORYLATION OF FAT IN ABSENCE OF ADRENAL GLANDS AS MEASURED WITH RADIOACTIVE PHOSPHORUS

Abstract

SINCE IT WAS FIRST postulated that the adrenal cortex acts on phosphorylation processes involving both carbohydrate and fat (1–3), numerous attempts have been made to obtain evidence for or against this view. So far as fat is concerned, some of the evidence has centered around the question of whether its absorption is influenced by excision of the adrenal glands (4–6). Although there can be no doubt that fat is phosphorylated in the intestinal mucosa (7–12), the evidence available at present does not permit the conclusion that the only way that fat can cross the intestinal wall is via phosphorylation, or that faulty absorption of fat in the adrenalectomised animal must therefore represent an interference in the process of phosphorylation. Barnes et al. (5, 13) found no interference in the rates of incorporation of administered conjugated fatty acids into the phospholipid molecule after adrenalectomy. They employed the term ‘phosphorylation’ to describe this process (5, 13).