Subsarcolemmal and intermyofibrillar mitochondria play distinct roles in regulating skeletal muscle fatty acid metabolism

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Abstract
Skeletal muscle contains two populations of mitochondria that appear to be differentially affected by disease and exercise training. It remains unclear how these mitochondrial subpopulations contribute to fiber type-related and/or training-induced changes in fatty acid oxidation and regulation of carnitine palmitoyltransferase-1β (CPT1β), the enzyme that controls mitochondrial fatty acid uptake in skeletal muscle. To this end, we found that fatty acid oxidation rates were 8.9-fold higher in subsarcolemmal mitochondria (SS) and 5.3-fold higher in intermyofibrillar mitochondria (IMF) that were isolated from red gastrocnemius (RG) compared with white gastrocnemius (WG) muscle, respectively. Malonyl-CoA (10 μM), a potent inhibitor of CPT1β, completely abolished fatty acid oxidation in SS and IMF mitochondria from WG, whereas oxidation rates in the corresponding fractions from RG were inhibited only 89% and 60%, respectively. Endurance training also elicited mitochondrial adaptations that resulted in enhanced fatty acid oxidation capacity. Ten weeks of treadmill running differentially increased palmitate oxidation rates 100% and 46% in SS and IMF mitochondria, respectively. In SS mitochondria, elevated fatty acid oxidation rates were accompanied by a 48% increase in citrate synthase activity but no change in CPT1 activity. Nonlinear regression analyses of mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation rates in the presence of 0–100 μM malonyl-CoA indicated that IC50 values were neither dependent on mitochondrial subpopulation nor affected by exercise training. However, in IMF mitochondria, training reduced the Hill coefficient ( P < 0.05), suggesting altered CPT1β kinetics. These results demonstrate that endurance exercise provokes subpopulation-specific changes in mitochondrial function that are characterized by enhanced fatty acid oxidation and modified CPT1β-malonyl-CoA dynamics.