Dose-dependent quantitative effects of acute fructose administration on hepatic de novo lipogenesis in healthy humans

Fructose feeding increases hepatic de novo lipogenesis (DNL) and is associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Little is known, however, about individual variation in susceptibility to fructose stimulation of DNL. In this three-period, cross-over study, seventeen healthy male subjects were enrolled to evaluate the within and between subject variability of acute fructose feeding on hepatic fractional DNL. During each assessment, [1-13C1]-acetate was infused to measure DNL in the fasting state and during fructose feeding. Subjects randomly received a high-dose of fructose (10 mg/kg fat free mass/min) on two occasions and a low-dose (5 mg/kg fat free mass/min) on another. Fructose solutions were administered orally every 30 min for 9.5 hours. Ten subjects completed all three study periods. DNL was assessed as the fractional contribution of newly synthesized palmitate into very-low-density-lipoprotein triglycerides using mass isotopomer distribution analysis. Mean fasting DNL was 5.3%{plus minus} 2.8%...