Regulation of genes involved in fatty acid (FA) utilization in heart and liver of weanling rats was investigated in response to variations in dietary lipid content and to changes in intracellular FA ...homeostasis induced by etomoxir, a blocker of FA import into mitochondria. Northern-blot analyses were performed using cDNA probes specific for FA transport protein, a cell membrane FA transporter; long-chain- and medium-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenases, which catalyze the first step of mitochondrial FA beta-oxidation; and acyl-CoA oxidase, a peroxisomal FA beta-oxidation marker. High-fat feeding from postnatal d 21 to 28 resulted in a coordinate increase (58 to 136%) in mRNA abundance of all genes in heart. In liver, diet-induced changes in mitochondrial and peroxisomal beta-oxidation enzyme mRNAs (from 52 to 79%) occurred with no change in FA transport protein gene expression. In both tissues, the increases in mRNA levels went together with parallel increases in enzyme activity. Changes in FA homeostasis resulting from etomoxir administration led to a marked stimulation (76 to 180%) in cardiac expression of all genes together with parallel increases in enzyme activities. In the liver, in contrast, etomoxir stimulated the expression of acyl-CoA oxidase gene only. Feeding rats a low-fat diet containing 0.5% clofibrate, a ligand of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha, resulted in similar inductions of beta-oxidation enzyme genes in both tissues, whereas up-regulation of FA transport protein gene was restricted to heart. Altogether, these data suggest that changes in FA homeostasis in immature organs resulting either from high-fat diet or beta-oxidation blockade can efficiently be transduced to the level of gene expression, resulting in tissue-specific adaptations in various FA-using enzymes and proteins.
The activities of citrate synthase, 3-oxoacid CoA-transferase, and Na/K-ATPase were determined in the proximal convoluted tubules (PCT) of midcortical nephrons from 16-, 21- and 30-day-old and adult ...rats. Enzyme microassays based on NAD amplification were run on tubule segments microdissected from lyophilized tissue sections, and the activities were expressed per unit of tissue dry weight. The activities of 3-oxoacid CoA-transferase (+ 155%) and citrate synthase (+ 44%) increased between 16 and 30 days, while no significant change in Na/K-ATPase activity occurred during this period. The results obtained in PCT from subcapsular nephrons were similar. It is concluded that active transport of Na+ coupled to mitochondrial ATP production might be mature in the PCT by the time of weaning, consistent with data on the development of Na+ reabsorption. Since adrenalectomy on day 16 induced no changes in the activities of oxidative enzymes or Na/K-ATPase on day 21 in midcortical or subcapsular PCT, the physiological rise in circulating glucocorticoids, characteristic of the weaning period, does not trigger the development of oxidative enzymes and Na/K-ATPase in the PCT of the developing rat kidney.
Activities of fumarase and 3-hydroxyacylCoA dehydrogenase (3-OHDH) were determined in homogenates of rat kidneys between day 21 of gestation and postnatal day 10 and in single isolated nephron ...segments at postnatal days 16, 21, and 30, and in adult segments. For 3-OHDH activity, main developmental changes were found in proximal convoluted (PCT) and straight tubules (PST) and were characterized by an overshoot of adult level from postnatal days 21 to 30 (59.7 +/- 3.0 and 37.5 +/- 3.4 at day 21 vs. adult values 27.1 +/- 1.5 and 22.7 +/- 1.5 mol.kg dry wt-1.h-1). When rats were precociously weaned on day 16 and fed a diet containing lipid to equal 13% of total caloric intake, a significant decrease in 3-OHDH activity was observed in some parts of the nephron. These changes could be prevented by maintaining early weaned animals on high-fat diet providing 70% of total calories as lipid. Results suggest that changes in fat content of diet during kidney maturation can in part regulate 3-OHDH activity in some nephron segments. Fumarase activity increased 2.6-fold in the medullary thick ascending limb between days 16 and 30; pattern of development was similar to the one reported for Na(+)-K(+)-ATPase activity in this segment. High levels of both enzymes were reached noticeably earlier during development in PCT and PST than in medullary thick ascending limb, which emphasizes metabolic heterogeneity of developing rat kidney nephron.
We report on the loss of mitochondrial nicotinamide adenine dinucleotides in human cultured cells along with cell culture and acidification of the culture medium. This was established both by the ...direct measurement of the decrease in the mitochondrial NAD content and by the alteration of the oxidative properties of the mitochondria. In situ, this loss could be reversed in less than 2 h by changing the culture medium or by readjusting the pH of the medium at physiological pH values. By studying the oxidative properties of intact, but NAD-depleted, mitochondria in digitonin-permeabilized cells, we found that a rapid influx of NAD could replenish the mitochondrial NAD pool. This allowed the restoration of an active NAD+-dependent substrate oxidation. Depletion of mitochondrial NAD in cells grown under quiescent conditions was further confirmed by fluorimetric measurement of mitochondrial NAD, as was the influx of NAD+ into the mitochondrial matrix. These data constitute the first evidence of rapid fluxes of NAD through mitochondrial membranes in animal cells. They also point to the possible confusion between a loss of mitochondrial NAD and a defect of respiratory chain complex I in the context of screening procedures for respiratory chain disorder in human.
During development, gene expression of medium-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (MCAD), a nuclear-encoded mitochondrial enzyme that catalyses the first step of medium-chain fatty acid beta-oxidation, is ...highly regulated in tissues in accordance with fatty acid utilization, but the factors involved in this regulation are largely unknown. To investigate a possible role of thyroid hormones, rat pups were made hypothyroid by the administration of propylthiouracyl to the mother from day 12 of gestation, and their kidneys, heart and liver were removed on postnatal day 16 to determine MCAD mRNA abundance, protein level and enzyme activity. Similar experiments were run in 3,3',5-tri-iodothyronine (T3)-replaced hypothyroid (1 microg of T3/100 g body weight from postnatal day 5 to 15) and euthyroid pups. Hypothyroidism led to an increase in MCAD mRNA abundance in kidney and a decrease in abundance in heart, but had no effect in liver. The protein levels and enzyme activity were lowered in hypothyroid heart and kidney, suggesting that hypothyroidism affects post-transcriptional steps of gene expression in the kidney. All the effects of hypothyroidism were completely reversed in both heart and kidney by T3 replacement. Injection of a single T3 dose into 16-day-old euthyroid rats also led to tissue-specific changes in mRNA abundance. Nuclear run-on assays performed from hypothyroid and hypothyroid plus T3 rats showed that T3 stimulates MCAD gene transcription in heart and represses it in the kidney. These results indicate that the postnatal rise in circulating T3 is essential to the developmental regulation of the MCAD gene in vivo.
The expression of the biogenic amine degrading enzyme monoamine oxidases-A and -B depends on several factors including regional distribution, development and hormonal environment. In the present ...study, we investigated the expression of monoamine oxidases in developing kidney and their regulation by dexamethasone treatment. Immunoblots and enzyme assays, performed using
14C5-hydroxytriptamine and
14Cβ-phenylethylamine as substrates for monoamine oxidases-A and -B, respectively, showed that monoamine oxidase-A is the isoenzyme largely predominant in 9-day-old rats renal cortex. Experiments performed in 5-week-old rats showed an increase in monoamine oxidase-B activity and a decrease in monoamine oxidase-A activity and substrate affinity. The changes of monoamine oxidase-A activity and affinity were mimicked by dexamethasone treatment (0.60 mg/kg body weight injected subcutaneously three times at intervals of 24 h) of 9-day-old rats. In contrast, dexamethasone administration induced a modification of monoamine oxidase-B activity opposite to that found between 9-day- and 5-week-old rats. Dexamethasone treatment did not modify immunoreactivity and mRNA corresponding to monoamine oxidases-A and -B indicating that changes of enzyme activities were unrelated to regulation of protein synthesis and mRNA turnover. These results show that monoamine oxidases-A and -B are differently expressed in developing renal cortex and are regulated by dexamethasone treatment.
The oxygen-consumption rates and the activities of fumarase and beta-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase were compared in mitochondria isolated from fetal- and neonatal-rat kidney. Whole-organ ATP, ...phosphocreatine and creatine contents were determined in parallel. Kidney mitochondrial respiratory rates in the presence of succinate, glutamate/malate and palmitoyl-L-carnitine increased between 21 days post coitum and 1 day post partum, together with activities of oxidative enzymes. However, this postnatal maturation of oxidative metabolism was not yet initiated in mitochondria isolated from kidney 1 h post partum. An increase in ATP and phosphocreatine was observed immediately after delivery; newborn-rat kidney ATP content then remained high, whereas phosphocreatine reserves decreased considerably between 6 h and 1 day post partum. It is concluded that the increase in high-energy phosphate compounds observed at birth is not initially related to an activation of oxidative phosphorylation, and probably involves a transient stimulation of anaerobic glycolysis, while a progressive mitochondrial maturation takes place in the rat kidney during the first day of newborn life.
Mitochondrial fatty acid beta-oxidation plays a major role in providing the ATP required for reabsorptive processes in the adult rat kidney. However, the molecular mechanisms and signals involved in ...induction of the enzymes of fatty acid oxidation during development in this and other organs are unknown. We therefore studied the changes in the steady-state levels of mRNA encoding medium-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (MCAD), which catalyses the initial step in mitochondrial fatty acid beta-oxidation, in the rat kidney cortex and medulla between postnatal days 10 and 30. Furthermore, we investigated whether the expression of MCAD and of mitochondrial malate dehydrogenase (mMDH), a key enzyme in the tricarboxylic acid cycle, might be co-ordinately regulated by circulating glucocorticoids in the immature kidney during development. In the cortex, the levels of MCAD mRNA rose 4-fold between day 10 and day 21, and then decreased from day 21 to day 30. In the medulla a postnatal increase in the concentration of MCAD mRNA (8-fold) was observed during the same period. Adrenalectomy prevented the 16-21-day developmental increases in MCAD and mMDH mRNA levels in the cortex and medulla; these could be restored by dexamethasone treatment. A single injection of dexamethasone into 10-day-old rats led to a rise in MCAD and mMDH mRNA levels in the renal cortex due to stimulation of gene transcription, as shown by nuclear run-on assays. Therefore MCAD and mMDH gene expression is tightly regulated at the transcriptional level by developmental changes in circulating glucocorticoid levels. These hormones might thus represent a good candidate as a co-ordinating factor in the expression of nuclear genes encoding mitochondrial enzymes in the kidney during postnatal development.
PDF
