The distribution, cellular structure, and metabolism of adipose tissue in the fin whale, Balaenoptera physalus

Abstract

The gross mass, mean adipocyte volume, and hexokinase and phosphofructokinase activities of blubber and internal adipose tissue were measured from fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) caught in the North Atlantic west of Iceland. Fin whale adipocytes are smaller but more numerous than predictions from allometric equations relating adipose tissue structure to body mass, but the deviations are no greater than those of some terrestrial mammals, including humans. Significant activity of the glycolytic enzymes was measured from all adipose tissue samples except those around the eyeball; the activities of hexokinase and phosphofructokinase measured at room temperature are only slightly lower in the blubber than in the internal adipose depots. There was little evidence for metabolic correlates of the site-specific differences in the structure and chemistry of blubber. The highest capacity for glucose utilization was measured in adipose tissue from depots in the neck and the thorax, both of which may contain thermogenic tissue in neonates.