Lipolysis in muscles during refrigerated storage as related to the metabolic type of the fibres in the rabbit

The relation between lipolysis and the metabolic fibre type was investigated during refrigerated storage of rabbit muscles. Free fatty acid, monoacylglycerol and diacylglycerol contents and free fatty acid composition were compared in five muscles immediately after slaughter and after a 7-day-storage at 4°C. The results showed that. (1) The amount of free fatty acids sharply increased during the refrigerated storage (from 2–10 to 11–32 mg/100 g of muscle), especially that of long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (from less than 0.1 to 1.4-3.3 mg/100 g of muscle). (2) The glycolytic muscles contained 1.5 times less free fatty acids than the oxidative ones. However, the rates of phospholipid and triacylglycerol hydrolysis were not related to the metabolic type of the fibres. (3) The contribution of phospholipids to free fatty acid fraction was twice that of triacylglycerols in the glycolytic muscles whereas it was similar or lower to that of triacylglycerols in the oxidative muscles.