Abstract

Metabolic cycles are a fundamental element of cellular and organismal function. Among the most critical in higher organisms is the Cori Cycle, the systemic cycling between lactate and glucose. Here, skeletal muscle-specific Mitochondrial Pyruvate Carrier (MPC) deletion in mice diverted pyruvate into circulating lactate. This switch disinhibited muscle fatty acid oxidation and drove Cori Cycling that contributed to increased energy expenditure. Loss of muscle MPC activity led to strikingly decreased adiposity with complete muscle mass and strength retention. Notably, despite decreasing muscle glucose oxidation, muscle MPC disruption increased muscle glucose uptake and whole-body insulin sensitivity. Furthermore, chronic and acute muscle MPC deletion accelerated fat mass loss on a normal diet after high fat diet-induced obesity. Our results illuminate the role of the skeletal muscle MPC as a whole-body carbon flux control point. They highlight the potential utility of decreasing muscle pyruvate utilization to ameliorate obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Data availability

All metabolomic results generated as part of this study are provided in Supplemental tables 2 and 3 related to Figure 5.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Arpit Sharma

    Department of Biochemistry, University of Iowa, Iowa City, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  2. Lalita Oonthonpan

    Department of Biochemistry, University of Iowa, Iowa City, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  3. Ryan D Sheldon

    Department of Biochemistry, University of Iowa, Iowa City, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  4. Adam J Rauckhorst

    Department of Biochemistry, University of Iowa, Iowa City, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  5. Zhiyong Zhu

    Department of Internal Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  6. Sean C Tompkins

    Department of Biochemistry, University of Iowa, Iowa City, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  7. Kevin Cho

    Department of Chemistry, Washington University in St Louis, St. Louis, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  8. Wojciech J Grzesik

    Fraternal Order of the Eagles Diabetes Research Center (FOEDRC), University of Iowa, Iowa City, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  9. Lawrence R Gray

    Department of Biochemistry, University of Iowa, Iowa City, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  10. Diego A Scerbo

    Department of Biochemistry, University of Iowa, Iowa City, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  11. Alvin D Pewa

    Department of Biochemistry, University of Iowa, Iowa City, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  12. Emily M Cushing

    Department of Biochemistry, University of Iowa, Iowa City, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-9495-802X
  13. Michael C Dyle

    Department of Internal Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  14. James E Cox

    Department of Biochemistry, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  15. Chris Adams

    Department of Internal Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  16. Brandon S Davies

    Department of Biochemistry, University of Iowa, Iowa City, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  17. Richard K Shields

    Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science, University of Iowa, Iowa City, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  18. Andrew W Norris

    Department of Biochemistry, University of Iowa, Iowa City, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  19. Gary Patti

    FOEDRC Metabolomics Core Facility, University of Iowa, Iowa City, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-3748-6193
  20. Leonid V Zingman

    Department of Internal Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  21. Eric B Taylor

    Department of Biochemistry, University of Iowa, Iowa City, United States
    For correspondence
    eric-taylor@uiowa.edu
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-4549-6567

Funding

National Institutes of Health (DK104998)

  • Eric B Taylor

National Institutes of Health (GM007337)

  • Sean C Tompkins

National Institutes of Health (HL007638)

  • Adam J Rauckhorst

National Institutes of Health (DK101183)

  • Lawrence R Gray

American Diabetes Association (1-18-PDF-060)

  • Adam J Rauckhorst

National Institutes of Health (DK112751)

  • Diego A Scerbo

National Institutes of Health (AR059190)

  • Eric B Taylor

National Institutes of Health (HD084645)

  • Richard K Shields

National Institutes of Health (HD082109)

  • Richard K Shields

National Institutes of Health (DK092412)

  • Leonid V Zingman

National Institutes of Health (ES028365)

  • Gary Patti

National Institutes of Health (HL130146)

  • Brandon S Davies

National Institutes of Health (HL007344)

  • Ryan D Sheldon

National Institutes of Health (DK116522)

  • Ryan D Sheldon

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Animal experimentation: Animal work was performed in accordance with the University of Iowa Animal Use and Care Committee (IACUC). The University of Iowa IACUC is accredited by AALACi (#000833), is a Registered United States Department of Agriculture research facility (USDA No. 42-R-0004), and has PHS Approved Animal Welfare Assurance (#D16-00009).

Copyright

© 2019, Sharma et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

Metrics

  • 5,815
    views
  • 889
    downloads
  • 57
    citations

Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.

Download links

A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.

Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)

Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)

Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)

  1. Arpit Sharma
  2. Lalita Oonthonpan
  3. Ryan D Sheldon
  4. Adam J Rauckhorst
  5. Zhiyong Zhu
  6. Sean C Tompkins
  7. Kevin Cho
  8. Wojciech J Grzesik
  9. Lawrence R Gray
  10. Diego A Scerbo
  11. Alvin D Pewa
  12. Emily M Cushing
  13. Michael C Dyle
  14. James E Cox
  15. Chris Adams
  16. Brandon S Davies
  17. Richard K Shields
  18. Andrew W Norris
  19. Gary Patti
  20. Leonid V Zingman
  21. Eric B Taylor
(2019)
Impaired skeletal muscle mitochondrial pyruvate uptake rewires glucose metabolism to drive whole-body leanness
eLife 8:e45873.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.45873

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.45873

Further reading

    1. Cell Biology
    Chengfang Pan, Ying Liu ... Changlong Hu
    Research Article

    Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) is an endogenous inhibitor of glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS) and plays an important role in pancreatic β-cell dysfunction in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). This study aimed to explore the underlying mechanism by which PGE2 inhibits GSIS. Our results showed that PGE2 inhibited Kv2.2 channels via increasing PKA activity in HEK293T cells overexpressed with Kv2.2 channels. Point mutation analysis demonstrated that S448 residue was responsible for the PKA-dependent modulation of Kv2.2. Furthermore, the inhibitory effect of PGE2 on Kv2.2 was blocked by EP2/4 receptor antagonists, while mimicked by EP2/4 receptor agonists. The immune fluorescence results showed that EP1–4 receptors are expressed in both mouse and human β-cells. In INS-1(832/13) β-cells, PGE2 inhibited voltage-gated potassium currents and electrical activity through EP2/4 receptors and Kv2.2 channels. Knockdown of Kcnb2 reduced the action potential firing frequency and alleviated the inhibition of PGE2 on GSIS in INS-1(832/13) β-cells. PGE2 impaired glucose tolerance in wild-type mice but did not alter glucose tolerance in Kcnb2 knockout mice. Knockout of Kcnb2 reduced electrical activity, GSIS and abrogated the inhibition of PGE2 on GSIS in mouse islets. In conclusion, we have demonstrated that PGE2 inhibits GSIS in pancreatic β-cells through the EP2/4-Kv2.2 signaling pathway. The findings highlight the significant role of Kv2.2 channels in the regulation of β-cell repetitive firing and insulin secretion, and contribute to the understanding of the molecular basis of β-cell dysfunction in diabetes.

    1. Cell Biology
    Ryan M Finnerty, Daniel J Carulli ... Wipawee Winuthayanon
    Research Article

    The oviduct is the site of fertilization and preimplantation embryo development in mammals. Evidence suggests that gametes alter oviductal gene expression. To delineate the adaptive interactions between the oviduct and gamete/embryo, we performed a multi-omics characterization of oviductal tissues utilizing bulk RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq), single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq), and proteomics collected from distal and proximal at various stages after mating in mice. We observed robust region-specific transcriptional signatures. Specifically, the presence of sperm induces genes involved in pro-inflammatory responses in the proximal region at 0.5 days post-coitus (dpc). Genes involved in inflammatory responses were produced specifically by secretory epithelial cells in the oviduct. At 1.5 and 2.5 dpc, genes involved in pyruvate and glycolysis were enriched in the proximal region, potentially providing metabolic support for developing embryos. Abundant proteins in the oviductal fluid were differentially observed between naturally fertilized and superovulated samples. RNA-seq data were used to identify transcription factors predicted to influence protein abundance in the proteomic data via a novel machine learning model based on transformers of integrating transcriptomics and proteomics data. The transformers identified influential transcription factors and correlated predictive protein expressions in alignment with the in vivo-derived data. Lastly, we found some differences between inflammatory responses in sperm-exposed mouse oviducts compared to hydrosalpinx Fallopian tubes from patients. In conclusion, our multi-omics characterization and subsequent in vivo confirmation of proteins/RNAs indicate that the oviduct is adaptive and responsive to the presence of sperm and embryos in a spatiotemporal manner.