Organization and regulation of fatty acid oxidation in mitochondria of brown adipose tissue

AMPK/α-Ketoglutarate Axis Dynamically Mediates DNA Demethylation in the Prdm16 Promoter and Brown Adipogenesis

Promoting brown adipose tissue (BAT) development is an attractive strategy for the treatment of obesity, as activated BAT dissipates energy through thermogenesis; however, the mechanisms controlling BAT formation are not fully understood. We hypothesized that as a master regulator of energy metabolism, AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) may play a direct role in the process and found that AMPKα1 (PRKAA1) ablation reduced Prdm16 expression and impaired BAT development. During early brown adipogenesis, the cellular levels of α-ketoglutarate (αKG), a key metabolite required for TET-mediated DNA demethylation, were profoundly increased and required for active DNA demethylation of the Prdm16 promoter. AMPKα1 ablation reduced isocitrate dehydrogenase 2 activity and cellular αKG levels. Remarkably, postnatal AMPK activation with AICAR or metformin rescued obesity-induced suppression of brown adipogenesis and thermogenesis. In summary, AMPK is essential for the epigenetic control of BAT development through αKG, thus linking a metabolite to progenitor cell differentiation and thermogenesis.

Phosphoenolpyruvate shuttle--transport of energy from mitochondria to cytosol

Brown-adipose tissue mitochondria of hamster and rat contain phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (EC 4.1.1.32). In the presence of ketoglutarate and malate, phosphoenolpyruvate is formed and exported from mitochondria. Phosphoenolpyruvate formation is inhibited by 1,2,3-benzenetricarboxylate. It is proposed that phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase together with pyruvate carboxylase and pyruvate kinase forms a phosphoenolpyruvate shuttle through which energy produced by the Krebs cycle in mitochondria may be exported to cytosol.

On the rate-limiting step in the transfer of long-chain acyl groups across the inner membrane of brown adipose tissue mitochondria

Brown adipose tissue mitochondria predominantly oxidize fatty acids in order to generate heat for non-shivering thermogenesis, and have an unusually high capacity for net transfer of long-chain fatty acyl groups from the outer to the inner (matrix) compartment. The activities of the "outer" and "inner" carnitine long-chain acyltransferases have been estimated in isolated mitochondria of cold-acclimated guinea pits by the continuous spectrophotometric recording of the redox level of flavoproteins in the acyl-CoA dehydrogenase pathway. This redox level is determined by the intramitochondrial content of acyl-CoA under the selected experimental conditions. The apparent initial rate of the "inner" acyltransferase (palmitoyl-L-carnitine added) is three order of magnitudes higher than the "outer" acyltransferase (palmitoyl-CoA added), and this difference is not influenced by the substrate concentration, pH and reaction temperature. Thus, the "outer" acyltransferase reaction is rate limiting in the transfer of long-chain acyl groups across the inner membrane of these mitochondria and catalyzes a non-equilibrium reaction in the intact organelle. Estimates of the absolute rate of the "outer" long-chain acyltransferase indicate that it exceeds that of rat liver mitochondria by a factor of 20.

Purification and properties of mitochondrial adenosine triphosphatase of hamster brown adipose tissue

1. Oligomycin-insensitive ATPase (ATP phosphohydrolase, EC 3.6.1.3) was purified from brown adipose tissue mitochondria. It had a specific activity of 50 units/mg which could be increased up to 85 units/mg by KHCO3. The isolated enzyme represented less than 0.5% of the initial membrane proteins.2. The enzyme had a molecular weight equal to beef heart ATPase and was composed of five subunits with molecular weights of 56 200, 54 300, 33 500, 13 400 and 9500 respectively. 3. Isolated ATPase was labile while cold and was activated by the divalent cations Mn2+, Mg2+, Co2+ and Cd2+. The optimum ATP/Mg2+ ratio found was 1.58 and the enzyme had a maximum activity at pH 8.5; the Km was 220 micrometer. 4. The ATPase activity was 55% inhibited by aurovertin. The isolated enzyme enhanced the fluorescence of aurovertin, quenched by ATP and Mg2+ and enhanced by ADP. 5. Oligomycin sensitivity and cold stability of isolated ATPase was restored by its reconstitution with both brown adipose tissue and beef heart particles depleted of ATPase. 6. The results presented demonstrate that the low ATPase activity of brown adipose tissue mitochondria is due to a reduced content of ATPase.

The intracellular localization of long-chain acyl-CoA synthetase in brown adipose tissue

1. The acyl-CoA synthetase activity in brown adipose tissue of cold-exposed guinea pig has been studied by measuring the rate of palmitoylcarnitine formation in the presence of excess carnitine palmitoyltransferase. 2. The rate of palmitoylcarnitine formation in the mitochondria was found to be 161 plus or minus 64 nmol.mg-minus-1. min-minus-1 (n=9). 3. In the absence of added palmitate and bovine serum albumin a total of 35 plus or minus 1 nmol endogenous fatty acids.mg-minus-1 were activated with three different mitochondrial preparations. 4. Three different experimental approaches have been used to study the subcellular localization of the enzyme: (a) conventional differential centrifugation (De Duve, C., Pressman, B.C., Gianetto, R., Wattiaux, R. and Appelmans, F. (1955) Biochem. J. 60, 604-617) (B) the determination of the sediterm of different marker enzymes (Slinde, E. and Flatmark. T. (1973) Anal. Biochem. 56, 324-340) and (c) the determination of the stoichiometry between the activities of these enzymes sedimented at higher centrifugal effects. 5. Throughout all fractionation procedures, the long-chain acyl-CoA synthetase follows strictly the amine oxidase generally considered to be exclusively located on the mitochondrial outer membrane.

The regulation of glycerol 3-phosphate oxidase of rate brownadipose tissue mitochondria by long-chain free fatty acids

Added free fatty acids inhibit oxidation of glycerol 3-phosphate, succinate and NADH in brown-adipose tissue mitochondria from 10-day-old rats. The most pronounced is the inhibitory effect of glycerol 3-phosphate cytochrome c reductase (GP-cyto. c reductase). Contrary to other reductases, GP-cyto. c reductase activity of freshly isolated mitochondria is already inhibited by the fraction of endogenous free fatty acids. Both added and endogenous free fatty acids inhibition of GP-cyto. c reductase is fully reversible by the removal of free fatty acids by bovine serum albumine treatment. The inhibition of GP-cyto. c reductase is of strictly non-competitive type. The most inhibitory are unsaturated long-chain free fatty acids-oleic and linoleic acid. Results are discussed with regards to the regulatory importance of free fatty acids in brown-adiposetissue during intensive non-shivering thermogenesis.