A switch in metabolism precedes increased mitochondrial biogenesis in respiratory chain-deficient mouse hearts

We performed global gene expression analyses in mouse hearts with progressive respiratory chain deficiency and found a metabolic switch at an early disease stage. The tissue-specific mitochondrial transcription factor A (Tfam) knockout mice of this study displayed a progressive heart phenotype with depletion of mtDNA and an accompanying severe decline of respiratory chain enzyme activities along with a decreased mitochondrial ATP production rate. These characteristics were observed after 2 weeks of age and became gradually more severe until the terminal stage occurred at 10-12 weeks of age. Global gene expression analyses with microarrays showed that a metabolic switch occurred early in the progression of cardiac mitochondrial dysfunction. A large number of genes encoding critical enzymes in fatty acid oxidation showed decreased expression whereas several genes encoding glycolytic enzymes showed increased expression. These alterations are consistent with activation of a fetal gene expression program, a well-documented phenomenon in cardiac disease. An increase in mitochondrial mass was not observed until the disease had reached an advanced stage. In contrast to what we have earlier observed in respiratory chain-deficient skeletal muscle, the increased mitochondrial biogenesis in respiratory chain-deficient heart muscle did not increase the overall mitochondrial ATP production rate. The observed switch in metabolism is unlikely to benefit energy homeostasis in the respiratory chain-deficient hearts and therefore likely aggravates the disease. It can thus be concluded that at least some of the secondary gene expression alterations in mitochondrial cardiomyopathy do not compensate but rather directly contribute to heart failure progression.