Cardiovascular Research Advance Access first published online on April 27, 2009
This version [Corrected Proof] published online on May 22, 2009
Cardiovascular Research, doi:10.1093/cvr/cvp132
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Cardiac peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-
activation causes increased fatty acid oxidation, reducing efficiency and post-ischaemic functional loss


1 Department of Medical Physiology, Institute of Medical Biology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tromsø, N-9037 Tromsø, Norway
2 Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2 N 4N1
3 Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 5DG, UK
4 The Lipid Research Group, Institute of Medicine, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
* Corresponding author. Tel: +47 77 64 64 86; fax: +47 77 64 54 40. E-mail address: ellen.aasum{at}uit.no
Aims: Myocardial fatty acid (FA) oxidation is regulated acutely by the FA supply and chronically at the transcriptional level owing to FA activation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-
(PPAR
). However, in vivo administration of PPAR
ligands has not been shown to increase cardiac FA oxidation. In this study we have examined the cardiac response to in vivo administration of tetradecylthioacetic acid (TTA, 0.5% w/w added to the diet for 8 days), a PPAR agonist with primarily PPAR
activity.
Methods and results: Despite the fact that TTA treatment decreased plasma concentrations of lipids [FA and triacylglycerols (TG)], hearts from TTA-treated mice showed increased mRNA expression of PPAR
target genes. Cardiac substrate utilization, ventricular function, cardiac efficiency, and susceptibility to ischaemia-reperfusion were examined in isolated perfused hearts. In accordance with the mRNA changes, myocardial FA oxidation was increased 2.5-fold with a concomitant reduction in glucose oxidation. This increase in FA oxidation was abolished in PPAR
-null mice. Thus, it appears that the metabolic effects of TTA on the heart must be owing to a direct stimulatory effect on cardiac PPAR
. Hearts from TTA-treated mice also showed a marked reduction in cardiac efficiency (because of a two-fold increase in unloaded myocardial oxygen consumption) and decreased recovery of ventricular contractile function following low-flow ischaemia.
Conclusion: This study for the first time observed that in vivo administration of a synthetic PPAR
ligand elevated FA oxidation, an effect that was also associated with decreased cardiac efficiency and reduced post-ischaemic functional recovery.
KEYWORDS Cardiac metabolism; Glucose oxidation; Fatty acid oxidation; Ischaemia-reperfusion; Cardiac function; Cardiac efficiency; PPAR
target genes
Time for primary review: 21 days
Both the authors have made equal contributions to this paper.