Biomarkers of meat fat content - a review

Abstract

Intramuscular fat (IMF) content plays a key role in various quality traits of meat. Finding relevant biomarkers of IMF is thus a challenging area. IMF content varies between muscle types and also between species, breeds and individuals depending on gender, age, growth paths and feeding. Variability in IMF content is mainly linked to the number and size of intramuscular adipocytes, but also to muscle growth rate. Not only do muscle cells and adipocytes interplay during growth, but early events that influence adipogenesis inside the muscle are also likely to be involved in inter-individual differences in IMF content. Increasing muscularity will also dilute the final fat content of muscle. At the metabolic level, IMF content results from the balance between uptake, synthesis and degradation of triacylglycerols, which involve many metabolic pathways in both adipocytes and myofibres