ABSTRACT
In a mouse feeding study, nordihydroguaiaretic acid appeared to reduce body fat and significantly enhanced body fat reduction from a suboptimal dietary level of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). Important examples are the inhibition of body fat accretion seen in many animal species fed diets containing CLA, and inhibition of milk fat synthesis in dairy cows, effects that are induced by the t10,c12 CLA isomer. Lee et al. reported that mice fed a diet supplemented with 0.5% CLA exhibited significantly reduced hepatic stearoyl-CoA desaturase (SCD) activity and SCD1 mRNA expression. Interestingly, in certain human breast cancer cell lines, both t10,c12 and c9,t11 CLA isomers significantly reduced SCD activity and protein level. If this speculation is valid, then it also follows that there should be normal metabolic counterparts to the CLA isomers that induce the putative conformational changes in SCD that result in its hypothetical translocation to one or more active sites in the nucleus.
