Cardiomyocyte-specific deletion of GCN5L1 reduces lysine acetylation and attenuates diastolic dysfunction in aged mice by improving cardiac fatty acid oxidation

Biochem J. 2024 Feb 23:BCJ20230421. doi: 10.1042/BCJ20230421. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTCardiac mitochondrial dysfunction is a critical contributor to the pathogenesis of aging and many age-related conditions. As such, complete control of mitochondrial function is critical to maintain cardiac efficiency in the aged heart. Lysine acetylation is a reversible post-translational modification shown to regulate several mitochondrial metabolic and biochemical processes. In the present study, we investigated how mitochondrial lysine acetylation regulates fatty acid oxidation and cardiac function in the aged heart. We found a significant increase in mitochondrial protein acetylation in the aged heart which correlated with increased level of mitochondrial acetyltransferase-related protein GCN5L1. We showed that acetylation status of several fatty acid and glucose oxidation enzymes (long-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase, hydroxyacyl-coA dehydrogenase, and pyruvate dehydrogenase) were significantly upregulated in aged heart which correlated with decreased enzymatic activities. Using a cardiac-specific GCN5L1 knockout animal model, we showed that overall acetylation of mitochondrial proteins was decreased in aged knockout animals, including fatty acid oxidation proteins which led to improved fatty acid oxidation activity and attenuated cardiac diastolic dysfunction observed in the aged heart. Together, these findings indicate that lysine acetylation regulates fatty acid oxidation in the a...
Source: The Biochemical Journal - Category: Biochemistry Authors: Source Type: research