High Fat Diet Upregulates Fatty Acid Oxidation and Ketogenesis via Intervention of PPAR-γ

Systemic hyperlipidemia and intracellular lipid accumulation induced by chronic high fat diet (HFD) leads to enhanced fatty acid oxidation (FAO) and ketogenesis. The present study was aimed to determine whether activation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ (PPAR-γ) by surplus free fatty acids (FA) in hyperlipidemic condition, has a positive feedback regulation over FAO and ketogenic enzymes controlling lipotoxicity and cardiac apoptosis.

8 weeks old C57BL/6 wild type (WT) or PPAR-γ-/- mice were challenged with 16 weeks 60% HFD to induce obesity mediated type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and diabetic cardiomyopathy. Treatment course was followed by echocardiographic measurements, glycemic and lipid profiling, immunoblot, qPCR and immunohistochemistry (IHC) analysis of PPAR-γ and following mitochondrial metabolic enzymes 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA synthase (HMGCS2), mitochondrial β- hydroxy butyrate dehydrogenase (BDH1) and pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase isoform 4 (PDK4). In vivo model was translated in vitro, with neonatal rat cardiomyocytes (NRCM) treated with PPAR-γ agonist/antagonist and PPAR-γ overexpression adenovirus in presence of palmitic acid (PA). Apoptosis was determined in vivo from left ventricular heart by TUNEL assay and immunoblot analysis.

We found exaggerated circulating ketone bodies production and expressions of the related mitochondrial enzymes HMGCS2, BDH1 and PDK4 in HFD-induced diabetic hearts and in PA-treated NRCM. As a mechanistic approach we found HFD mediated activation of PPAR-γ is associated with the above-mentioned mitochondrial enzymes. HFD-fed PPAR-γ-/-mice display decreased hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia associated with increased insulin responsiveness as compared to HFD-fed WT mice PPAR-γ-/-HFD mice demonstrated a more robust functional recovery after diabetes induction, as well as significantly reduced myocyte apoptosis and improved cardiac function.

PPAR-γ has been described previously to regulate lipid metabolism and adipogenesis. The present study suggests for the first time that increased PPAR-γ expression by HFD is responsible for cardiac dysfunction via upregulation of mitochondrial enzymes HMGCS2, BDH1 and PDK4. Targeting PPAR-γ and its downstream mitochondrial enzymes will provide novel strategies in preventing metabolic and myocardial dysfunction in diabetes mellitus.