Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress–Mediated Autophagy and Apoptosis Alleviate Dietary Fat–Induced Triglyceride Accumulation in the Intestine and in Isolated Intestinal Epithelial Cells of Yellow Catfish

The intestine is the main organ for absorbing dietary fat. High dietary lipid intake leads to fat deposition in the intestine and adversely influences fat absorption and health, but the underlying mechanism is unknown. We used yellow catfish and their isolated intestinal epithelial cells to test the hypothesis that endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, autophagy, and apoptosis mediate fat-induced changes in lipid metabolism. Male and female yellow catfish (weight: 3.79 ± 0.16 g; age: 3 mo) were fed diets containing lipid at 6.98% (low-fat diet; LFD), 11.3% (middle-fat diet; MFD), or 15.4% (high-fat diet; HFD) (by weight) for 8 wk. Each dietary group had 3 replicates, 30 fish per replicate. Their intestinal epithelial cells were isolated and incubated for 24 h in control solution or various concentrations of fatty acids (FAs) with or without 2-h pretreatment with an inhibitor [3-methyladenine (3-MA), 4-phenyl butyric acid (4-PBA), or Ac-DVED-CHO (AC)]. Triglyceride (TG) contents, genes, and enzymes involved in lipid metabolism, ER stress, autophagy, and apoptosis were determined in intestinal tissue and cells; immunoblotting, BODIPY 493/503 staining, ultrastructural observation, and the detection of autophagic and apoptotic vesicles were performed on intestinal cells. Compared with the LFD and MFD, the HFD increased intestinal TG content by 120–226%, activities of lipogenic enzymes by 19.0–245%, expression of genes related to lipogenesis (0.77–8.4-fold), lipolysis (0.36–6.0-fold), FA transport proteins (0.79–1.7-fold), ER stress (0.55–7.5-fold), autophagy (0.56–4.2-fold), and apoptosis (0.80–5.2-fold). Using isolated intestinal epithelial cells and inhibitors (4-PBA, 3-MA, and AC), we found that ER stress mediated FA-induced activation of autophagy (11.0–50.1%) and apoptosis (10.4–32.0%), and lipophagy and apoptosis mediated FA-induced lipolysis (3.40–41.6%). An HFD upregulated lipogenesis, lipolysis, and FA transport, induced ER stress, and activated autophagy and apoptosis. ER stress, autophagy, and apoptosis play important regulatory roles in fat-induced changes in lipid metabolism in the intestine and intestinal epithelial cells of yellow catfish.