scholarly journals Use of a selectively permeabilized isolated rat hepatocyte preparation to study changes in the properties of overt carnitine palmitoyltransferase activity in situ

1988 ◽  
Vol 249 (3) ◽  
pp. 645-652 ◽  
Author(s):  
M R Boon ◽  
V A Zammit

1. A permeabilized isolated rat liver cell preparation was developed to achieve selective permeabilization of the cell membrane to metabolites and to allow the assay of mitochondrial overt carnitine palmitoyltransferase (CPT I) activity in situ. By performing the digitonin-induced permeabilization in the presence of fluoride and bivalent-metal-cation sequestrants, it was possible to demonstrate that the activity of other enzymes, which are regulated by reversible phosphorylation, was preserved during the procedure and subsequent washing of cells before assay. 2. CPT activity at a sub-optimal palmitoyl-CoA concentration was almost totally (approximately 90%) inhibited by malonyl-CoA, indicating that mitochondrial CPT I was largely measured in this preparation. 3. The palmitoyl-CoA-saturation and malonyl-CoA-inhibition curves for CPT activity in permeabilized cells were very similar to those obtained previously for the enzyme in isolated liver mitochondria. Moreover, starvation and diabetes had the same effects on enzyme activity, affinity for palmitoyl-CoA and malonyl-CoA sensitivity of CPT I in isolated cells as found in isolated mitochondria. These physiologically induced changes persisted through the cell preparation and incubation period. 4. Neither incubation of cells with glucagon or insulin nor incubation with pyruvate and lactate before permeabilization resulted in alterations of these parameters of CPT I in isolated cells. 5. The results are discussed in relation to the temporal relationships of changes in the activity and properties of CPT I in vivo in relation to the effects of insulin and glucagon on fatty acid metabolism in vivo.

2000 ◽  
Vol 349 (1) ◽  
pp. 179-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Denis MCGARRY ◽  
Nicholas F. BROWN

Carnitine palmitoyltransferase I (CPT I) catalyses the initial step of fatty acid import into the mitochondrial matrix, the site of β-oxidation, and its inhibition by malonyl-CoA is a primary control point for this process. The enzyme exists in at least two isoforms, denoted L-CPT I (liver type) and M-CPT I (skeletal-muscle type), which differ in their kinetic characteristics and tissue distributions. A property apparently unique to L-CPT I is that its sensitivity to malonyl-CoA decreases in vivo with fasting or experimentally induced diabetes. The mechanism of this important regulatory effect is unknown and has aroused much interest. CPT I is an integral outer-membrane protein and displays little activity after removal from the membrane by detergents, precluding direct purification of active protein by conventional means. Here we describe the expression of a 6×His-tagged rat L-CPT I in Pichia pastoris and purification of the detergent-solubilized enzyme in milligram quantities. Reconstitution of the purified product into a liposomal environment yielded a 200-400-fold increase in enzymic activity and restored malonyl-CoA sensitivity. This is the first time that a CPT I protein has been available for study in a form that is both pure and active. Comparison of the kinetic properties of the reconstituted material with those of L-CPT I as it exists in mitochondria prepared from yeast over-expressing the enzyme and in livers from fed or fasted rats permitted novel insight into several aspects of the enzyme's behaviour. The malonyl-CoA response of the liposomal enzyme was found to be greater when the reconstitution procedure was carried out at 22 °C compared with 4 °C (IC50 ≈ 11 μM versus 30 μM, respectively). When the sensitivities of L-CPT I in each of the different environments were compared, they were found to decrease in the following order: fed liver > fasted liver≈ liposomes prepared at 22 °C≈ P. pastoris mitochondria > liposomes prepared at 4 °C. In addition, pre-treatment of L-CPT I liposomes with the membrane-fluidizing reagent benzyl alcohol caused densensitization to the inhibitor. In contrast with the variable response to malonyl-CoA, the liposomal L-CPT I displayed a pH profile and kinetics with regard to the carnitine and acyl-CoA substrates similar to those of the enzyme in fed or fasted liver mitochondria. However, despite a normal sensitivity to malonyl-CoA, L-CPT I in P. pastoris mitochondria displayed aberrant behaviour with regard to each of these other parameters. The kinetic data establish several novel points. First, even after stringent purification procedures in the presence of detergent, recombinant L-CPT I could be reconstituted in active, malonyl-CoA sensitive form. Second, the kinetics of the reconstituted, 6×His-tagged L-CPT I with regard to substrate and pH responses were similar to what is observed with rat liver mitochondria (whereas in P. pastoris mitochondria the enzyme behaved anomalously), confirming that the purified preparation is a suitable model for studying the functional properties of the enzyme. Third, wide variation in the response to the inhibitor, malonyl-CoA, was observed depending only on the enzyme's membrane environment and independent of interaction with other proteins. In particular, the fluidity of the membrane had a direct influence on this parameter. These observations may help to explain the mechanism of the physiological changes in the properties of L-CPT I that occur in vivo and are consistent with the current topographical model of the enzyme.


1993 ◽  
Vol 289 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
A M B Moir ◽  
V A Zammit

1. The technique of selective labelling of hepatic fatty acids in vivo [Moir and Zammit (1992) Biochem. J. 283, 145-149] has been used to monitor non-invasively the metabolism of fatty acids in the livers of awake unrestrained rats during the starved-to-refed transition. Values for the incorporation of labelled fatty acid into liver and plasma glycerolipids and into exhaled carbon dioxide after injection of labelled lipoprotein and Triton WR 1339 into rats with chronically cannulated jugular veins were obtained for successive 1 h periods from the start of refeeding of 24 h-starved rats. 2. Starvation for 24 h resulted in marked and reciprocal changes in the incorporation of label into glycerolipids and exhaled 14CO2, such that a 4-fold higher value was obtained for the oxidation/esterification ratio in livers of starved rats compared with fed animals. 3. Refeeding of starved rats did not return this ratio to the value observed for fed animals for at least 7 h; during the first 3 h of refeeding the ratio was at least as high as that for starved rats. Between 4 h and 6 h of refeeding the ratio was still approx. 70% of that in starved animals, and 2.5-fold higher than in fed rats. 4. These data support the hypothesis that the capacity of the liver to oxidize fatty acids is maintained at a high level during the initial stages of refeeding [Grantham and Zammit (1986) Biochem. J. 239, 485-488] and that control of the flux of hepatic fatty acids into the oxidative pathway is largely lost from the reaction catalysed by mitochondrial overt carnitine palmitoyltransferase (CPT I) during this phase of recovery from the starved state. 5. Refeeding also resulted in a rapid (< 1 h) increase in hepatic malonyl-CoA concentrations to values intermediate between those in livers of fed and starved animals. The sensitivity of CPT I to malonyl-CoA inhibition in isolated liver mitochondria was only partially reversed even after 5 h of refeeding. 6. Refeeding resulted in an acute 35% inhibition of the fraction of synthesized triacylglycerol that was secreted into the plasma; the maximal effect occurred 2-3 h after the start of refeeding. The inhibition of the fractional secretion rate was fully reversed after 5 h of refeeding. 7. The amount of 14C label that was incorporated into phospholipids as a fraction of total glycerolipid synthesis was doubled within 2 h of the start of refeeding.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)


1985 ◽  
Vol 231 (2) ◽  
pp. 343-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
V A Zammit ◽  
C G Corstorphine

Specific binding of [2-14C] malonyl-CoA to rat liver mitochondria was measured at different temperatures and after various periods of time of exposure of the mitochondria to the ligand. Incubation of mitochondria at 37 degrees C in the absence of malonyl-CoA resulted in a decrease in their ability to bind malonyl-CoA at all concentrations tested (up to 55 microM). However, incubation of mitochondria in the presence of malonyl-CoA resulted in the loss of the binding only by a low-affinity component. By contrast, there was an increase in the binding that occurred at low, physiological, concentrations of malonyl-CoA. These differences in the response of the two binding components to incubation conditions were used to obtain quantitative data about their respective saturation kinetics. Evidence was obtained that, whereas the high-affinity component approached saturation hyperbolically with respect to malonyl-CoA concentration, the low-affinity component had sigmoidal characteristics. The concentrations of malonyl-CoA required to half-saturate the two components were 2-3 microM and 30 microM for the high- and low-affinity components respectively. Evidence was also obtained for the involvement of a temperature-dependent transition, that occurred at around 25 degrees C, in the modulation of malonyl-CoA binding to the mitochondria. The possible physiological roles of the two components of malonyl-CoA binding in relation to the regulation of overt carnitine palmitoyltransferase (CPT I) activity in vivo are discussed.


1989 ◽  
Vol 263 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
V A Zammit ◽  
C G Corstorphine ◽  
M P Kolodziej

The functional molecular sizes of the protein(s) mediating the carnitine palmitoyltransferase I (CPT I) activity and the [14C]malonyl-CoA binding in purified outer-membrane preparations from rat liver mitochondria were determined by radiation-inactivation analysis. In all preparations tested the dose-dependent decay in [14C]malonyl-CoA binding was less steep than that for CPT I activity, suggesting that the protein involved in malonyl-CoA binding may be smaller than that catalysing the CPT I activity. The respective sizes computed from simultaneous analysis for molecular-size standards exposed under identical conditions were 60,000 and 83,000 DA for malonyl-CoA binding and CPT I activity respectively. In irradiated membranes the sensitivity of CPT activity to malonyl-CoA inhibition was increased, as judged by malonyl-CoA inhibition curves for the activity in control and in irradiated membranes that had received 20 Mrad radiation and in which CPT activity had decayed by 60%. Possible correlations between these data and other recent observations on the CPT system are discussed.


1984 ◽  
Vol 222 (2) ◽  
pp. 335-342 ◽  
Author(s):  
V A Zammit ◽  
C G Corstorphine ◽  
S R Gray

Time courses for inhibition of carnitine palmitoyltransferase (CPT) I activity in, and [14C]malonyl-CoA binding to, liver mitochondria from fed or 48 h-starved rats were obtained at 37 degrees C by using identical incubation conditions and a fixed concentration of malonyl-CoA (3.5 microM), which represents the middle of the physiological range observed previously [Zammit (1981) Biochem. J. 198, 75-83] Incubation of mitochondria in the absence of malonyl-CoA resulted in a time-dependent decrease in the ability of the metabolite instantaneously to inhibit CPT I and to bind to the mitochondria. Both degree of inhibition and binding were restored in parallel over a period of 6-8 min on subsequent addition of malonyl-CoA to the incubation medium. However, the increased inhibition of CPT I activity on addition of mitochondria directly to malonyl-CoA-containing medium was not accompanied by an increase in the amount of [14C]malonyl-CoA bound to mitochondria at 37 degrees C. Time courses for binding of [14C]malonyl-CoA performed at 0 degree C were different from those obtained at 37 degrees C. There was little loss of ability of [14C]malonyl-CoA to bind to mitochondria on incubation in the absence of the metabolite, but there was a time-dependent increase in binding on addition of mitochondria to malonyl-CoA-containing medium. It is suggested that these temperature-dependent differences between the time courses obtained may be due to the occurrence of different changes at 37 degrees C and at 0 degree C in the relative contributions of different components (with different affinities) to the binding observed at 3.5 microM-malonyl-CoA. Evidence for multi-component binding was obtained in the form of strongly curvilinear Scatchard plots for instantaneous (5s) binding of malonyl-CoA to mitochondria. Such multi-component binding would be expected from previous results on the different affinities of CPT I for malonyl-CoA with respect to inhibition [Zammit (1984) Biochem. J. 218, 379-386]. Mitochondria obtained from starved rats showed qualitatively the same time courses as those described above, with notable quantitative differences with respect both to the absolute extents of CPT I inhibition and [14C]malonyl-CoA binding achieved as well as to the time taken to attain them.


1986 ◽  
Vol 239 (2) ◽  
pp. 485-488 ◽  
Author(s):  
B D Grantham ◽  
V A Zammit

The recovery of the parameters of the kinetic properties of carnitine palmitoyltransferase (CPT) I in liver mitochondria of starved rats was studied after re-feeding animals for various periods of time. There were no significant changes either in the activity of the enzyme at high palmitoyl-CoA concentrations or in the affinity of the enzyme for palmitoyl-CoA, or in the sensitivity of CPT I to malonyl-CoA inhibition after 3 h or 6 h re-feeding. After 24 h re-feeding, both the affinity of the enzyme for palmitoyl-CoA and the activity of the enzyme were still not significantly different from those for the enzyme in mitochondria from 24 h-starved animals. By contrast, the sensitivity of CPT I to malonyl-CoA inhibition was largely, but not fully, restored to that observed in mitochondria from fed rats.


1985 ◽  
Vol 232 (1) ◽  
pp. 177-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
N P Brindle ◽  
V A Zammit ◽  
C I Pogson

The characteristics of inhibition of carnitine palmitoyltransferase (CPT) I by malonyl-CoA were studied for the enzyme in mitochondria isolated from sheep liver, a tissue with a very low rate of fatty acid synthesis. Malonyl-CoA was as potent in inhibiting the sheep liver enzyme as in inhibiting the enzyme in rat liver mitochondria. CPT I in guinea-pig liver mitochondria was also similarly inhibited. The inhibition showed the same time-dependent characteristics previously established for the rat liver enzyme. Methylmalonyl-CoA was as effective an inhibitor of CPT I as malonyl-CoA in sheep liver mitochondria, but did not affect CPT I activity in mitochondria from rat or guinea-pig liver. The concentrations of malonyl-CoA required to inhibit CPT I in sheep liver mitochondria in vitro were similar to those found in freeze-clamped sheep liver samples (about 7 nmol of malonyl-CoA/g wet wt.). In sheep liver cells the content of malonyl-CoA was only one-tenth of that observed in vivo when glucose only was added to the incubation medium. Inclusion of acetate and/or insulin increased the malonyl-CoA content about 10-fold, to values similar to those observed in vivo. The rate of fatty acid synthesis in sheep liver cells was about 1% of that observed in rat liver, but was correlated with the concentrations of malonyl-CoA in the cells under various incubation conditions. These observations are discussed in relation to (i) the regulatory role of malonyl-CoA in tissues that have a low capacity for fatty acid synthesis, and (ii) the utilization by sheep liver of propionate as a gluconeogenic precursor.


1988 ◽  
Vol 249 (2) ◽  
pp. 409-414 ◽  
Author(s):  
B D Grantham ◽  
V A Zammit

1. The kinetic properties of overt carnitine palmitoyltransferase (CPT I, EC 2.3.1.21) were studied in rat liver mitochondria isolated from untreated, diabetic and insulin-treated diabetic animals. A comparison was made of the time courses required for the changes in these properties of CPT I to occur and for the development of ketosis during the induction of chronic diabetes and its reversal by insulin treatment. 2. The development of hyperketonaemia over the first 5 days of insulin withdrawal from streptozotocin-treated rats was accompanied by parallel increases in the activity of CPT I and in the I0.5 (concentration required to produce 50% inhibition) of the enzyme for malonyl-CoA. 3. The rapid reversal of the ketotic state by treatment of chronically diabetic rats with 6 units of regular insulin was not accompanied by any change in the properties of CPT I over the first 4 h. Higher doses of insulin (15 units), delivered throughout a 4 h period, resulted in an increase in the affinity of CPT I for malonyl-CoA, but the sensitivity of the enzyme to the inhibitor was still significantly lower than in mitochondria from normal animals. 4. Conversely, when insulin treatment was continued over a 24 h period, full restoration of the sensitivity of the enzyme to malonyl-CoA was achieved. However, the activity of the enzyme was only decreased marginally. 5. These results are discussed in terms of the possibility that the major regulatory sites of the rate of hepatic oxidation may vary in different phases of the induction and reversal of chronic diabetes.


1983 ◽  
Vol 214 (3) ◽  
pp. 1027-1030 ◽  
Author(s):  
V A Zammit

Preincubation of rat liver mitochondria with 5,5′-dithiobis-(2-nitrobenzoic acid) (Nbs2) followed by removal of excess reagent by washing the mitochondria with 0.5 mM-reduced glutathione resulted in a desensitization of carnitine palmitoyltransferase (CPT) I activity to malonyl-CoA inhibition. The effect was not observed if mitochondria were washed with 0.5 mM-dithiothreitol. The desensitization effect of Nbs2 could be reversed by a second incubation in the presence of 8 microM-malonyl-CoA. In addition, malonyl-CoA, when present simultaneously with Nbs2, protected CPT I activity against the desensitization effect of the thiol-group reagent. These results suggest that malonyl-CoA exerts an effect on one or more thiol groups of the enzyme, and that this effect is related to the ability of the metabolite to sensitize CPT I to malonyl-CoA inhibition.


1984 ◽  
Vol 219 (2) ◽  
pp. 601-608 ◽  
Author(s):  
S E Mills ◽  
D W Foster ◽  
J D McGarry

The kinetics of carnitine palmitoyltransferase I (CPT I; EC 2.3.1.21) were examined in mitochondria from rat liver, heart and skeletal muscle as a function of pH over the range 6.8-7.6. In all three tissues raising the pH resulted in a fall in the Km for carnitine, no change in the Km for palmitoyl-CoA or Octanoyl-CoA, and a marked decrease in the inhibitory potency of malonyl-CoA. Studies with skeletal-muscle mitochondria established that increasing pH was accompanied by an increase in the Kd of the malonyl-CoA binding site for this ligand, coupled with a decrease in the Kd for fatty acyl-CoA species to compete for malonyl-CoA binding. Three principal conclusions are drawn. (1) The pH-induced shift in malonyl-CoA sensitivity of CPT I is not a phenomenon restricted to liver mitochondria. (2) At any given pH within the range tested, the ability of malonyl-CoA (and closely related compounds) to inhibit enzyme activity is governed by the efficiency of their binding to the malonyl-CoA site. (3) The competitive interaction between fatty acyl-CoA substrates and malonyl-CoA as regards CPT I activity is exerted at the malonyl-CoA binding site. Finally, the possibility is strengthened that the malonyl-CoA binding site is distinct from the active site of CPT I.


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