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Quercetin enhances fatty acid β-oxidation by inducing lipophagy in AML12 hepatocytes.

ABSTRACT: Recent evidence demonstrated that chronic intake of quercetin attenuated hepatic fat accumulation in various animal models of obesity and diabetes. However, whether quercetin has the ability to enhance energy metabolism in hepatocytes and its exact mechanisms have yet to be identified. In the present study, we investigated whether quercetin directly enhanced the energy metabolism of cultured hepatocytes by focusing on lipophagy, involving selective autophagic degradation of lipid droplets. As an indicator of mitochondrial respiration, oxygen consumption was measured following 12-h treatment with quercetin or its related flavonoids, isorhamnetin and rutin (10 μM) using an extracellular flux analyzer. Treatment of alpha mouse liver 12 (AML12) hepatocytes with quercetin enhanced mitochondrial respiration, but isorhamnetin and rutin did not. Results of a palmitate-bovine serum albumin fatty acid oxidation assay showed that quercetin significantly increased the oxygen consumption of AML12 hepatocytes, suggesting enhanced fatty acid β-oxidation. However, as expression levels of mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation proteins were unaltered by quercetin, we explored whether lipophagy contributed to enhanced fatty acid β-oxidation. Increased colocalization of lipid droplets and lysosomes confirmed that quercetin promoted lipophagy in AML12 hepatocytes. Furthermore, pharmacological inhibition of the autophagy-lysosomal pathway abolished the enhancement of fatty acid β-oxidation induced by quercetin in AML12 hepatocytes, suggesting that the enhancement of lipophagy by quercetin contributed to increased fatty acid β-oxidation. Finally, we showed that quercetin could activate AMPK signaling, which regulates autophagy even under nutrient-sufficient conditions. Our findings indicate that quercetin enhanced energy metabolism by a potentially novel mechanism involving promotion of lipophagy to produce the substrate for fatty acid β-oxidation in mitochondria through activation of AMPK signaling. Our results suggest the possibility that nutrient-induced lipophagy might contributes to the reduction of fat in hepatocytes.

SUBMITTER: Fukaya M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8233147 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Nuclear factor E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) is a transcription factor known to induce the expression of a variety of antioxidant and detoxification genes. Recently, increasing evidence has revealed roles for Nrf2 in glucose, lipid, and energy metabolism; however, the exact functions of Nrf2 in hepatocyte biology are largely unclear. In the current study, the transient knockdown of Nrf2 via siRNA transfection enhanced the glucose uptake of fasting AML12 hepatocytes to 325.3 ± 11.1% ( P < 0.05) of that of untransfected control cells. The impacts of Nrf2 knockdown (NK) on the antioxidant system, inflammatory response, and glucose metabolism were then examined in AML12 cells under both high-glucose (33 mmol/L) and low-glucose (4.5 mmol/L) conditions. NK lowered the gene and protein expression of the anti-oxidases heme oxygenase-1 and NAD(P)H: quinone oxidoreductase 1 and increased p-eukaryotic initiation factor-2αS51, p-nuclear factor-κB p65S276, and its downstream proinflammatory factors, including interleukin-1 beta, tumor necrosis factor-α, matrix metalloproteinase 2, and matrix metalloproteinase 9, at the protein level. NK also altered the protein expression of fibroblast growth factor 21, glucose transporter type 4, insulin-like growth factor 1, forkhead box protein O1, p-AKTS473, and p-GSK3α/βY279/Y216, which are involved in glucose uptake, glycogenesis, and gluconeogenesis in AML12 cells. Our results provide a comprehensive understanding of the central role of Nrf2 in the regulation of glucose metabolism in AML12 hepatocytes, in addition to its classical roles in the regulation of redox signaling, endoplasmic reticulum stress and proinflammatory responses, and support the potential of Nrf2 as a therapeutic target for the prevention and treatment of obesity and other associated metabolic syndromes. Impact statement Increasing evidence supports the complexity of Nrf2 functions beyond the antioxidant and detoxification response. Previous in vivo studies employing either Nrf2-knockout or Nrf2-activated mice have achieved a similar endpoint: protection against an obese and insulin-resistant phenotype that includes impaired lipogenesis and gluconeogenesis in the liver. These apparently paradoxical observations led us to evaluate the impact of Nrf2 in liver cells in the absence of any influence from the systemic environment, including changes in the secretion of adipokines and proinflammatory cytokines by adipose tissues. In the present study, Nrf2 knockdown was sufficient to induce fundamental changes in the glucose metabolism of AML12 hepatocytes in addition to its classical cytoprotective functions. We also discuss similarities and differences between our in vitro study and previous in vivo studies, which may be helpful to dissect and better understand in vivo data that represents the culmination of both local and systemic alterations.

Project description:BackgroundThe oxidation of fatty acids in mitochondria plays an important role in energy metabolism and genetic disorders of this pathway may cause metabolic diseases. Enzyme deficiencies can block the metabolism at defined reactions in the mitochondrion and lead to accumulation of specific substrates causing severe clinical manifestations. Ten of the disorders directly affecting mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation have been well-defined, implicating episodic hypoketotic hypoglycemia provoked by catabolic stress, multiple organ failure, muscle weakness, or hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Additionally, syndromes of severe maternal illness (HELLP syndrome and AFLP) have been associated with pregnancies carrying a fetus affected by fatty acid oxidation deficiencies. However, little is known about fatty acids kinetics, especially during fasting or exercise when the demand for fatty acid oxidation is increased (catabolic stress).ResultsA computational kinetic network of 64 reactions with 91 compounds and 301 parameters was constructed to study dynamic properties of mitochondrial fatty acid beta-oxidation. Various deficiencies of acyl-CoA dehydrogenase were simulated and verified with measured concentrations of indicative metabolites of screened newborns in Middle Europe and South Australia. The simulated accumulation of specific acyl-CoAs according to the investigated enzyme deficiencies are in agreement with experimental data and findings in literature. Investigation of the dynamic properties of the fatty acid beta-oxidation reveals that the formation of acetyl-CoA - substrate for energy production - is highly impaired within the first hours of fasting corresponding to the rapid progress to coma within 1-2 hours. LCAD deficiency exhibits the highest accumulation of fatty acids along with marked increase of these substrates during catabolic stress and the lowest production rate of acetyl-CoA. These findings might confirm gestational loss to be the explanation that no human cases of LCAD deficiency have been described.ConclusionIn summary, this work provides a detailed kinetic model of mitochondrial metabolism with specific focus on fatty acid beta-oxidation to simulate and predict the dynamic response of that metabolic network in the context of human disease. Our findings offer insight into the disease process (e.g. rapid progress to coma) and might confirm new explanations (no human cases of LCAD deficiency), which can hardly be obtained from experimental data alone.

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Quercetin enhances fatty acid β-oxidation by inducing lipophagy in AML12 hepatocytes.

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