Slightly different metabolomic profiles are associated with high or low weights duck foie gras

Understanding the evolution of fatty liver metabolism of ducks is a recurrent issue for researchers and industry. Indeed, the increase in weight during the overfeeding period leads to an important change in the liver metabolism. However, liver weight is highly variable at the end of overfeeding within a batch of animals reared, force-fed and slaughtered in the same way. For this study, we performed a proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) analysis on two classes of fatty liver samples, called low-weight liver (weight between 550 and 599 g) and high-weight liver (weight above 700 g). The aim of this study was to identify the differences in metabolism between two classes of liver weight (low and high). Firstly, the results showed that increased liver weight is associated with higher glucose uptake leading to greater lipid synthesis. Secondly, this increase is probably also due to a decline in the level of export of triglycerides and cholesterol from the liver by maintaining them at high hepatic concentration levels. Finally, the increase in liver weight could lead to a significant decrease in the efficiency of aerobic energy metabolism associated with a significant increase in the level of oxidative stress.