ATF4 Protects the Heart from Failure by Antagonizing Oxidative Stress

ABSTRACT: Cellular redox control is maintained by generation of reactive oxygen/nitrogen species balanced by activation of antioxidative pathways. Disruption of redox balance leads to oxidative stress, a central causative event in numerous diseases including heart failure. Redox control in the heart exposed to hemodynamic stress, however, remains to be fully elucidated. Here, we show that production of cardiomyocyte NADPH (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate), a key factor in redox regulation, is decreased in pressure overload-induced heart failure. As a consequence, the level of reduced glutathione is downregulated, a change associated with cardiac cell death, fibrosis, and cardiomyopathy. We report that the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP) and mitochondrial serine/glycine/folate metabolic signaling, two major NADPH-generating pathways in the cytosol and mitochondria, respectively, are induced in the heart by pressure overload. We identify ATF4 (activating transcriptional factor 4) as an upstream transcription factor controlling the expression of multiple enzymes in these two pathways. Consistent with this, joint pathway analysis (JPA) of transcriptomic and metabolomic data reveals that ATF4 preferably controls oxidative stress and redox-related pathways. Overexpression of ATF4 in cardiomyocytes in culture leads to a significant increase in NADPH-producing enzymes whereas silencing of ATF4 decreases their expression. Further, stable isotope tracer experiments reveal that ATF4 overexpression in vitro strongly augments metabolic flux within these two pathways. In vivo, cardiomyocyte-specific deletion of ATF4 exacerbates cardiomyopathy in the setting of pressure overload and accelerates the development of heart failure, attributable, at least in part, to an inability to increase the expression of NADPH-generating enzymes. Taken together, our findings reveal that ATF4 plays a critical role in cardiac homeostasis under conditions of hemodynamic stress by governing both cytosolic and mitochondrial production of NADPH.

ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus Rattus norvegicus

PROVIDER: GSE187005 | GEO | 2022/05/16

REPOSITORIES: GEO