Gender influence on plasma triacylglycerol response to meals with different monounsaturated and saturated fatty acid content

Abstract

Objective: Both gender and meal fatty acid composition modulate postprandial triacylglycerol (TAG) metabolism, but little information exists on their interaction. We compared postprandial TAG concentrations in men and women after test meals differing in the proportion of monounsaturated (MUFA) and saturated fatty acids (SFA). Subjects: Nine men (body mass index, BMI: 24.572.3 kg/m 2 ) (mean7s.d.) and 10 premenopausal women (BMI: 21.271.7 kg/m 2 ), young and healthy, habituated to a relatively high MUFA diet. Design: Plasma responses were studied after subjects consumed two meals, each providing 60 g of fat and 4.7 MJ, on different occasions: one meal was rich in MUFA (MUFA meal: 40 g MUFA; 12 g SFA) and the other meal was rich in SFA (SFA meal: 20 g MUFA; 32 g SFA). The total body and abdominal fat mass were assessed by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. Results: Fasting plasma TAG concentration did not differ between meals or genders. No gender differences were observed in either total body or abdominal fat mass. The area under the plasma concentration vs time curve was on average 60% higher (Po0.001) in men than women. Repeated measures ANOVA showed a significant effect of meal  time interaction in men (Po0.001) but not in women (P ¼ 0.84). In men, maximal plasma TAG occurred at 4 h and was significantly greater after the MUFA meal (2.1070.20 mmol/l) (mean7s.e.m.) than after the SFA meal (1.6670.19 mmol/l) (P ¼ 0.01). TAG concentration at 5 h was also significantly greater after the MUFA meal. In women, the patterns of TAG responses were identical after the MUFA and SFA meals. Conclusions: This study provides evidence that gender influences postprandial TAG concentrations when meal fatty acid composition is altered.

Fats and Fatty Acid Requirements for Adults

“…This effect was not confirmed by a meta-analysis, which selected a minority of the reports [Gardner and Kraemer, 1995]. The increase in postprandial TGs is higher from MUFAs than from SFAs and PUFAs [Nielsen et al, 2002;Koutsari et al, 2004].…”

Adding carbohydrate to a high-fat meal blunts postprandial lipemia in women and reduces meal-derived fatty acids in systemic circulation

“…Therefore, variability in the contribution of TGs coming from the contents of an earlier meal may help explain some of the discrepancy between the studies described above. Additionally, because the TG response to a high-fat meal is different between men and women (Couillard et al 1999;Horton et al 2002;Knuth and Horowitz 2006;Koutsari et al 2004;Sopowski et al 2001), the discrepancy between these studies may also be due in part to sex-related differences in the response to the coingestion of CHO and fat. The metabolic effects of adding Values are means ± SEM, n = 9 for each sex.…”

“…Previous work has found that the plasma TG response after a meal is often greater in men than in women (Couillard et al 1999;Horton et al 2002;Koutsari et al 2004;Sopowski et al 2001), and this sex-specific difference in lipemic response to a fat meal may contribute to the delayed development of CVD in women compared with men (Rosamond et al 2007). More specifically, we recently demonstrated that alterations in chylomicron metabolism (i.e., prolongation of chylomicrons in men compared with women), explained much of the sex-related difference in post-prandial lipemia after a fat meal (Knuth and Horowitz 2006).…”

Metabolic actions of insulin in men and women

“…Furthermore, two studies evaluated plasma free fatty acid kinetics in men and women after consumption of an energy-adjusted mixed meal and found that the relative (to basal values) meal-induced decrease in free fatty acid Ra was the same in men and women [87,88]. Similarly, the suppression of plasma free fatty acid concentration following ingestion of a mixed meal adjusted for sex differences in energy requirements was found to be the same in men and women [89–91]. However, the suppression of plasma free fatty acid concentration after a standard OGTT is typically greater in women than in men [38,66,73,92,93], most likely because the greater glucose/insulin challenge in women.…”