What is the “metabolic fate” of glucose in mice with pressure-overload or volume-overload induced cardiac hypertrophy? Listen as Associate Editor Fabio Recchia (Temple University and Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna) interviews lead author, and fellow Associate Editor, Ajay Shah (King’s College London) along with experts Christoph Maack and Edoardo Bertero (both at University Clinic Würzburg) about the new study by Schnelle et al. “Metabolism is integrally linked to structural and functional changes that occur in the remodeling heart.” By implementing a method of heavy carbon labeling in vivo, and utilizing nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, Schnelle et al. found notable differences in the pressure-overload mouse model of transverse aortic constriction (TAC) but not in the volume-overload TAC model. What is the significance of an increase in flux in the tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA) during pressure-overload? How did the authors interpret the evidence of increased glutamine and aspartate, neither of which are TCA metabolites? Listen to find out.

Moritz Schnelle, Mei Chong, Anna Zoccarato, Manar Elkenani, Greta Jane Sawyer, Gerd Hasenfuss, Christian Ludwig, Ajay M. Shah In vivo [U-13C]glucose labeling to assess heart metabolism in murine models of pressure and volume overload Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol, published August 4, 2020. DOI: doi.org/10.1152/ajpheart.00219.2020