Fructose ingestion is associated with the production of hepatic steatosis and hypertriglyceridaemia. For fructose to attain these effects in rats, simultaneous induction of fatty acid synthesis and inhibition of fatty acid oxidation is required. We aimed to determine the mechanism involved in the inhibition of fatty acid oxidation by fructose and whether this effect occurs also in human liver cells. Female rats were supplemented or not with liquid fructose (10% w/v) for 7 or 14 days; rat (FaO) and human (HepG2) hepatoma cells, and human hepatocytes were incubated with fructose 25 mM for 24 hours. The expression and activity of the enzymes and transcription factors relating to fatty acid betaoxidation were evaluated. Fructose inhibited the activity of fatty acid beta-oxidation only in livers of 14-day fructose-supplemented rats, as well as the expression and activity of peroxisome proliferator activated receptor alpha (PPARalpha). Similar results were observed in FaO and ownregulation was not due to an osmotic effect or to an increase in protein-phosphatase 2A activity caused by fructose. Rather, it was related to increased content in liver of inactive, acetylated peroxisome proliferator activated receptor gamma coactivator 1alpha, due to a reduction in sirtuin 1 expression and activity. In conclusion, fructose inhibits liver fatty acid oxidation by reducing PPARalpha expression and activity, both in rat and human liver cells, by a mechanism involving sirtuin 1 down-regulation.Response to Reviewers: Reviewer #1: Major points: 1.In order for the reader to comprehend the nutritional setting in which the changes are being observed, far more detail needs to be included to support/strengthen table 1. Details on the nutritional content of the diet must be included (% calories from fat etc..). In the same sense, it would be useful to see the data presented as total calories consumed from diet vs fructose in drinking water. In this study the rats received a regular diet (Teklad Global 2018 Rodent Diet, fromHarlan Teklad), that provided 18% calories from fat, 24% from protein and 58% from carbohydrate. This information has been included in the new version of the manuscript (Materials and Methods section, pg 5, ln 22-23). Regarding the calories consumed from diet or from fructose, we calculated the data from the area under the curve of food or drink consumption in g or ml/days/cage (containing two rats). Our results are the following: As we already stated in our first version of the manuscript, "rats increased their calorie intake in a similar way at 7 (x1.24-fold) and 14 days (x1.27-fold), mainly due to an increase in fructose calories (x1.37 and x1.39-fold at 7 and 14 days, respectively), which was not compensated by a reduction in the ingestion of solid food". Perhaps it was not clear enough, so we have rephrased the sentence (pg 11, ln 8-13): "rats increased their calorie intake in a similar way, from 726.4 to 904.4 kcal/7days/2 rats (increase of 1.24-fold) and from 1609.6 to 2052.4 kcal/14days/2 rats (x1.27...