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Novel Aspects of Fatty Acid Oxidation Uncovered by the Combination of Mass Isotopomer Analysis and Metabolomics

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2006, Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, Nutrition.
Mass isotopomer analysis provides a wealth of information on the pathways of intermediary metabolism, and on their regulation. The tracing of single or multiple 13C atoms in metabolites allows the identification of the fates of a given substrate and its partitioning between divergent pathways. Metabolomics, a new strategy of data-driven research, identifies unexpected correlations between areas of metabolism which are not known to interact. Therefore, metabolomics widens the field in which hypotheses can be formulated. I hypothesized that the association of metabolomics and mass isotopomer analysis could reveal the existence of unknown reactions in the metabolic fates of uniformly 13C-labeled substrate. In my thesis research, I first compared the efficiency of various fatty acids and of dicarboxylates as precursors of peroxisomal and mitochondrial acetyl-CoA. The mass isotopomer distributions of the acetyl moiety of citrate showed that the efficiency of the contribution of C2-C18 fatty acids to mitochondrial acetyl-CoA negatively correlates with the fatty acid chain length in heart. My data also revealed that octanoate undergoes one cycle of peroxisomal oxidation in the heart. This was evidenced by a higher 13C-labeling of malonyl-CoA than the acetyl of citrate. Second, I studied the competition between short and long-chain fatty acids for the supply of acetyl-CoA to the citric acid cycle. My data clearly showed that acetate strongly inhibits the degradation of oleate to acetyl-CoA in the heart. This inhibition is not mediated by an increased malonyl-CoA concentration, but very likely by the competition for free CoA between the very active acetyl-CoA synthetase and carnitine palmitoyltransferase II. Third, associating metabolomics and mass isotopomer analysis, I found evidence of a new anaplerotic pathway branching out from the metabolism of azelate, an odd chain dicarboxylate. In livers perfused with [U-13C9]azelate, the mass isotopomer distribution of selected areas of the metabolome revealed that this compound (i) is initially beta-oxidized in peroxisomes, (ii) undergoes complete beta-oxidation to [U-13C3]malonyl-CoA and [U-13C2]acetyl-CoA in the mitochondria, (iii) is a major contributor to mitochondrial acetyl-CoA, and (iv) is a precursor of anaplerotic methylmalonyl-CoA. This process does not involve propionyl-CoA, the only known precursor of methylmalonyl-CoA in mammalian cells.
Henri Brunengraber (Advisor)
299 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Bian, F. (2006). Novel Aspects of Fatty Acid Oxidation Uncovered by the Combination of Mass Isotopomer Analysis and Metabolomics [Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1144955161

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Bian, Fang. Novel Aspects of Fatty Acid Oxidation Uncovered by the Combination of Mass Isotopomer Analysis and Metabolomics. 2006. Case Western Reserve University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1144955161.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Bian, Fang. "Novel Aspects of Fatty Acid Oxidation Uncovered by the Combination of Mass Isotopomer Analysis and Metabolomics." Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University, 2006. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1144955161

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)