Submitted on January 27, 2008
Accepted on May 12, 2008
Mercaptoacetate inhibition of fatty acid 
-oxidation attenuates the oral acceptance of fat in BALB/c mice
Shigenobu Matsumura1*, Katsuyoshi Saitou2, Takashi Miyaki2, Takeshi Yoneda2, Takafumi Mizushige2, Ai Eguchi2, Tetsuro Shibakusa3, Yasuko Manabe2, Satoshi Tsuzuki4, Kazuo Inoue5, and Tohru Fushiki2
1 Laboratory of Nutriion Chemistry, Division of Food Science and Biotechnology, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
2 Agriculture, Kyoto University, Japan
3 Agriculture, Kyoto university, Japan
4 Agriculture, Kyoto University, United States
5 Laboratory of Nutrition Chemistry, Division of Food Science and Biotechnology, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: sigenobu{at}kais.kyoto-u.ac.jp.
We investigated the effect of 
-oxidation inhibition on the fat ingestive behavior of BALB/c mice. Intraperitoneal administration to mice of mercaptoacetate (MA), an inhibitor of fatty acid oxidation, significantly suppressed their intake of corn oil but not their intake of sucrose solution or laboratory chow. To further examine the effect of MA on the acceptability of corn oil in the oral cavity, we examined short-term licking behavior. MA significantly and specifically decreased the number of licks of corn oil within a 60-sec period, but did not affect those of a sucrose solution, a monosodium glutamate solution, or mineral oil. In contrast, the administration of 2-deoxyglucose (2-DG), an inhibitor of glucose metabolism, did not affect the intake or short-term licking counts of any of the tasted solutions. These findings suggest that the fat metabolism is involved in the mechanism underlying the oral acceptance of fat as an energy source.
