Abstract: This study was conducted to investigate the effects of liquorice extract on subcutaneous fat deposition and the activities of metabolism related enzymes in sheep. In this single-factor experiment,50 healthy male lamb of Ningxia Tan sheep on 20 to 30 d after weaning with similar initial body weight were randomly divided into 5 groups and experiment Ⅰ to Ⅳ groups were fed with diets supplemented with 0,1000,2000,3000,4000 mg/kg basic ration liquorice extract (LE),respectively. After a trial period of 120 days,the sheep were slaughtered and the subcutaneous fat weight,serum lipid metabolism indices and subcutaneous fat metabolism related enzyme activity were tested. Results showed that compared with control group,the subcutaneous fat weight of trialⅠ to Ⅳ groups reduced by 20.16%,14.40%,18.11% and 20.16%,respectively. The effect of 3000 mg/kg LE was the best to decrease the serum total cholesterol(TC). But LE had no significant effect on total triglycerides (TG) and high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels (P>0.05). The glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH) activity in subcutaneous adipose tissue was significantly suppressed by LE (P<0.05),and 3000 mg/kg LE was the best. But the influence of LE on the activities of fatty acid synthase (FAS),malic dehydrogenase(MDH),isocitrate dehydrogenase(ICDH) and 6-phosphate dehydrogenase (6PGDH) had no significant effect (P>0.05).Thus,LE tended to reduce the subcutaneous fat weight and serum total cholesterol, and 3000 mg/kg LE adding level had the best lipid-lowering effect,and LE reduced fat deposition mainly by down regulating the key enzymes in fat synthesis approach,however,the specific regulation mechanism of LE on subcutaneous fat metabolism key enzymes in sheep still needed to further study.

Key words: liquorice extract; sheep; subcutaneous fat metabolism