Macrophage phagocytosis is an essential biological process in host defense and requires
large amounts of energy. To date, glucose is believed to represent the prime substrate for
ATP production in macrophages. To investigate the relative contribution of free fatty acids
(FFAs) in this process, we determined the phagocytosis rates in normal mouse
macrophages and macrophages of adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL)-deficient mice. ATGL
was shown to be the rate-limiting enzyme for the hydrolysis of lipid droplet-associated …