The effect of increased dietary intake of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) on hepatic malic enzyme (EC 1.1.1.40) gene expression and activity was investigated in either hereditary fixed or dietary induced hypertriglyceridemia after euglycemic hyperinsulinemic (6.4 mU/kg/min) clamp. The hereditary hypertriglyceridemic rats (hHTG) were fed for 2 weeks basal (B) or high (63 cal %) sucrose (HS) diet, with or without fish oil (FO, 30 wt % n-3 PUFA). The results were compared with the data obtained in control (C) animals subjected to identical protocol. In hHTG rats, increased gene expression [hHTG: 1.7 +/- 0.1 vs. C: 0.5 +/- 0.05 arbitrary units (AU), P<0.02] for malic enzyme (ME) was not accompanied by increased activity of this enzyme in liver [hHTG: 1.1 +/- 0.1 vs. C: 3.1 +/- 0.4 nkat/mg, P<0.001]. HS feeding raised the activity [HS-hHTG: 4.2 +/- 0.3 nkat/mg, P<0.001; HS-C: 7.5 +/- 0.9 nkat/mg, P<0.001] and mRNA levels [HS-hHTG: 10.4 +/- 0.3 AU, P<0.001; HS-C: 7.7 +/- 0.3 AU, P<0.001] in liver of both hHTG and control rats. The supplementation of HS diet with FO led to striking suppression of activity by 63 % [2.8 +/- 0.5 nkat/mg, P<0.001] and gene expression [2.9 +/- 0.2 AU, P<0.001] for ME in liver of control rats. Such inhibitory effect was not as pronounced in hHTG rats and reached about 50 % in the ME activity [HS+FO: 2.0 +/- 0.06 nkat/mg vs. HS:4.2 +/- 0.3 nkat/mg, P<0.001] or 30 % decrease in ME mRNA levels [HS+FO: 7.5 +/- 0.8 Au vs. HS:10.4 +/- 0.3 AU, P<0.001]. Thus, hHTG rats have markedly elevated levels of mRNA for malic enzyme in liver accompanied by decreased enzymatic activity. Dietary manipulations leading to alteration of hypertriglyceridemia (HS diet, omega-3 PUFA) influenced both the activity of malic enzyme and its transcription in the liver.