Background In addition to serving as building blocks for protein synthesis, amino acids also provide energy and precursors that are used by cells through catabolism. Mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) is a central coordinator of cellular metabolism. However, little is known regarding the function of mTORC1 in amino acid catabolism. The aims of this study were to explore the mechanism by which mTORC1 controls the conversion of glutamate to α-ketoglutarate and ornithine to putrescine, and mTORC1 regulates the expression amino acid catabolism-related genes in hepatocyte. Methods HL-7702 hepatocytes were treated with glutamate, ornithine, rapamycin or SC75741, alone or in combination; the plasmids pRNAT-U6.1/Neo-shRaptor and pIRES2-EGFP-Rheb were transfected into HL-7702 cells to silencing Raptor or overexpressing Rheb. The intracellular content of glutamate, oxaloacetate, α-ketoglutaric acid, and aspartic acid, and the intracellular level of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), ornithine decarboxylase (ODC), glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH), and glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) were measured by ELISA. The concentrations of intracellular ornithine and putrescine were measured by HPLC. The mRNA level of amino acid catabolism-related genes was detected by qRT-PCR, and the protein level of mTORC1 and NF-κB was investigated by western blot. Results Our data showed that rapamycin inhibits the utilization of glutamate and ornithine in HL-7702 hepatocytes. mTORC1 regulates the expression of AST and ODC through the transcription factor NF-κB in response to glutamate or ornithine. Further, inactivated mTORC1 by Raptor silencing downregulated the expression of AST , ODC , GDH and GAD , while enhanced mTORC1 by Rheb overexpression upregulated NF-κB activation and the indicated genes expression in hepatocytes. Inhibited NF-κB by inhibitor SC75741 decreased the AST , ODC , GDH , and GAD expression. Conclusions 4 Our results demonstrate that mTORC1 regulates amino acid catabolism by inducing the expression of AST , ODC , GDH , and GAD , which is mediated by NF-κB. This finding constitutes a novel mechanism by which amino acid catabolism is regulated in hepatocytes.
Biological samples such as tissues, blood, or tumors are often complex and harbor heterogeneous populations of cells. Separating out specific cell types or subpopulations from such complex mixtures to study their metabolic phenotypes is challenging because experimental procedures for separation may disturb the metabolic state of cells. To address this issue, we developed a method for analysis of cell subpopulations using stable isotope tracing and fluorescence-activated cell sorting followed by liquid chromatography-high-resolution mass spectrometry. To ensure a faithful representation of cellular metabolism after cell sorting, we benchmarked sorted extraction against direct extraction. While peak areas differed markedly with lower signal for amino acids but higher signal for nucleotides, mass isotopomer distributions from sorted cells were generally in good agreement with those obtained from direct extractions, indicating that they reflect the true metabolic state of cells prior to sorting. In proof-of-principle studies, our method revealed metabolic phenotypes specific to T cell subtypes, and also metabolic features of cells in the committed phase of the cell division cycle. Our approach enables studies of a wide range of adherent and suspension cell subpopulations, which we anticipate will be of broad importance in cell biology and biomedicine.
Small intestinal villi are structural and functional units present in higher vertebrates and uniquely adapted to nutrient absorption. Villus enterocytes are organized in transcriptional “zones” dedicated to specialized tasks such as absorption of specific nutrients. We report that the transcription factor c-MAF is expressed in differentiated lower and mid-villus enterocytes and is a target of BMP signaling. Maf inactivation perturbed the villus zonation program by increasing carbohydrate-related transcripts while suppressing transcripts linked to amino-acid and lipid absorption. The formation of cytoplasmic lipid droplets, shuttling dietary fat to chylomicrons, was impaired upon Maf loss indicating its role in dietary lipid handling. Maf inactivation under homeostatic conditions expanded tuft cells and led to compensatory gut lengthening, preventing weight loss. However, delayed Maf−/− enterocyte maturation impaired weight recovery after acute intestinal injury, resulting in reduced survival. Our results identify c-MAF as a regulator of the intestinal villus zonation program, while highlighting the importance of coordination between stem/progenitor and differentiation programs for intestinal regeneration.
Introduction Choline is an essential human nutrient that is particular important for proliferating cells, and altered choline metabolism has been associated with cancer transformation. Yet, the various metabolic fates of choline in proliferating cells have not been investigated systematically. Objectives This study aims to map the metabolic products of choline in normal and cancerous proliferating cells. Methods We performed 13C-choline tracing followed by liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) analysis of metabolic products in normal and in vitro-transformed (tumor-forming) epithelial cells, and also in tumor-derived cancer cell lines. Selected metabolites were quantified by internal standards. Results Untargeted analysis revealed 121 LCMS peaks that were 13C-labeled from choline, including various phospholipid species, but also previously unknown products such as monomethyl- and dimethyl-ethanolamines. Interestingly, we observed formation of betaine from choline specifically in tumor-derived cells. Expression of choline dehydrogenase (CHDH), which catalyzes the first step of betaine synthesis, correlated with betaine synthesis across the cell lines studied. RNAi silencing of CHDH did not affect cell proliferation, although we observed an increased fraction of G2M phase cells with some RNAi sequences, suggesting that CHDH and its product betaine may play a role in cell cycle progression. Betaine cell concentration was around 10 µM, arguing against an osmotic function, and was not used as a methyl donor. The function of betaine in these tumor-derived cells is presently unknown. Conclusion This study identifies novel metabolites of choline in cancer and normal cell lines, and reveals altered choline metabolism in cancer cells.
Model-based metabolic flux analysis (MFA) using isotope-labeled substrates has provided great insight into intracellular metabolic activities across a host of organisms. One challenge with applying MFA in mammalian systems, however, is the need for absolute quantification of nutrient uptake, biomass composition, and byproduct release fluxes. Such measurements are often not feasible in complex culture systems or in vivo. One way to address this issue is to estimate flux ratios, the fractional contribution of a flux to a metabolite pool, which are independent of absolute measurements and yet informative for cellular metabolism. Prior work has focused on “local” estimation of a handful of flux ratios for specific metabolites and reactions. Here, we perform systematic, model-based estimation of all flux ratios in a metabolic network using isotope labeling data, in the absence of uptake/release data. In a series of examples, we investigate what flux ratios can be well estimated with reasonably tight confidence intervals, and contrast this with confidence intervals on normalized fluxes. In a series of examples, we find that flux ratios can provide useful information on the metabolic state, and is complementary to estimates of normalized fluxes: for certain metabolic reactions, only flux ratios can be well estimated, while for others normalized fluxes can be obtained. Simulation studies of a large human metabolic network model suggest that estimation of flux ratios is technically feasible for complex networks, but additional studies on data from actual isotopomer labeling experiments are needed to validate these results. Finally, we experimentally study serine and methionine metabolism in cancer cells using flux ratios. We find that, in these cells, the methionine cycle is truncated with little remethylation from homocysteine, and polyamine synthesis in the absence of methionine salvage leads to loss of 5-methylthioadenosine, suggesting a new mode of overflow metabolism in cancer cells. This work highlights the potential for flux ratio analysis in the absence of absolute quantification, which we anticipate will be important for both in vitro and in vivo studies of cancer metabolism.
Proliferating cells must synthesize a wide variety of macromolecules while progressing through the cell cycle, but the coordination between cell cycle progression and cellular metabolism is still poorly understood. To identify metabolic processes that oscillate over the cell cycle, we performed comprehensive, non-targeted liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) based metabolomics of HeLa cells isolated in the G 1 and SG 2 M cell cycle phases, capturing thousands of diverse metabolite ions. When accounting for increased total metabolite abundance due to cell growth throughout the cell cycle, 18% of the observed LC-HRMS peaks were at least twofold different between the stages, consistent with broad metabolic remodeling throughout the cell cycle. While most amino acids, phospholipids, and total ribonucleotides were constant across cell cycle phases, consistent with the view that total macromolecule synthesis does not vary across the cell cycle, certain metabolites were oscillating. For example, ribonucleotides were highly phosphorylated in SG 2 M, indicating an increase in energy charge, and several phosphatidylinositols were more abundant in G 1 , possibly indicating altered membrane lipid signaling. Within carbohydrate metabolism, pentose phosphates and methylglyoxal metabolites were associated with the cycle. Interestingly, hundreds of yet uncharacterized metabolites similarly oscillated between cell cycle phases, suggesting previously unknown metabolic activities that may be synchronized with cell cycle progression, providing an important resource for future studies.
Summary Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) is a signalling protein known as a serum biomarker for a number of diseases including cancer. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a label‐free, rapid and sensitive method for detecting VEGF in its native forms in human serum. In this work, we have demonstrated the proof‐of‐concept of a sensitive label‐free biosensor based on capacitance changes induced by capturing of VEGF in human serum using anti‐VEGF aptamers functionalized on interdigitated (IDE) capacitor arrays (aptasensors). Limit of detection of VEGF protein using this aptasensor was in the range 0.5–2 ng/mL in dilute human serum. The label‐free capacitive aptasensing strategy provides a simple, reliable and effective means of biosensing serum VEGF levels for early cancer diagnosis.
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