We studied lipolysis in the isolated rat heart, measured as glycerol release during anoxia, low-flow ischemia and subsequent reperfusion. It was found that the rate of lipolysis was enhanced during ischemia/anoxia while the lipase activities in tissue extracts involved in the myocardial lipolysis and the amount of triglycerides were not affected. This indicates the dominant occurrence of a lipolysis-reesterification principle in ischemic and anoxic tissue. A common observation of ischemia/anoxia is an increase in the tissue NADH/NAD+ ratio. Therefore we investigated the effect of lactate and malate, both of which enhance the tissue redox state on myocardial lipolysis. Perfusion in the presence of lactate (10 mM) and malate (10 mM) both stimulated myocardial lipolysis by about five times. This suggests that the rate of reesterification of product fatty acids to triglycerides, which is determined by the NADH/NAD+ ratio, because of the increased formation of glycerol 3-phosphate from dihydroxy acetone phosphate, plays an important role in the regulation of lipolysis. The existence of triglyceride-fatty acid-triglyceride cycle is discussed.

Myocardial triacylglycerol hydrolysis is subject to product inhibition. After hydrolysis of endogenous triacylglycerols, the main proportion of the liberated fatty acids is re-esterified to triacylglycerol, indicating the importance of fatty acid re-esterification in the regulation of myocardial triacylglycerol homoeostasis. Therefore, we characterized phosphatidate phosphohydrolase (PAP) and diacylglycerol acyltransferase (DGAT) activities, enzymes catalysing the final steps in the re-esterification of fatty acids to triacylglycerols in the isolated rat heart. The PAP activity was mainly recovered in the microsomal and soluble cell fractions, with an apparent Km of 0.14 mM for both the microsomal and the soluble enzyme. PAP was stimulated by Mg2+ and oleic acid. Oleic acid, like a high concentration of KCl, stimulated the translocation of PAP activity from the soluble to the particulate (microsomal) fraction. Myocardial DGAT had an apparent Km of 3.8 microM and was predominantly recovered in the particulate (microsomal) fraction. Both enzyme activities were significantly increased after acute streptozotocin-induced diabetes, PAP from 15.6 +/- 1.1 to 28.1 +/- 3.6 m-units/g wet wt. (P less than 0.01) and DGAT from 2.23 +/- 0.11 to 3.01 +/- 0.11 m-units/g wet wt. (P less than 0.01). In contrast with diabetes, low-flow ischaemia during 30 min did not affect PAP and DGAT activity in rat hearts. Perfusion with glucagon (0.1 microM) during 30 min did not affect total PAP activity, but changed the subcellular distribution. More PAP activity was recovered in the particulate fraction. DGAT activity was lowered by glucagon treatment from 0.37 +/- 0.03 to 0.23 +/- 0.02 m-unit/mg of microsomal protein (P less than 0.05). The role of PAP and DGAT activity and PAP distribution in the myocardial glucose/fatty acid cycle is discussed.

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The hormonal regulation and enzymatic basis of endogenous lipolysis in heart are not yet completely elucidated. The lysosomal fraction from rat heart appeared to be markedly enriched in triglycerides and a significant reduction in triglycerides in this fraction was found after prolonged perfusion or stimulation of lipolysis with glucagon. The enhanced rate of lipolysis, measured as glycerol release from the isolated perfused rat heart, was abolished 10-15 min after continuous glucagon administration. Omission of glucagon for another 60 min restored the ability of glucagon to stimulate lipolysis, indicating the limited availability of endogenous triglycerides and the presence of a transfer-system for triglycerides from a non-metabolically active pool to a metabolically active pool. The enhanced lipolysis induced by low-flow ischemia was found to be inhibited by the lysosomotropic agent methylamine (5 mM). Methylamine-perfusion during low-flow ischemia was accompanied by an increased recovery of myocardial triglycerides in the lysosomal fraction. The possible role of lysosome-like particles in myocardial triglyceride homeostasis was further investigated by studying the kinetics of uptake and degradation of labeled triglycerides by membrane-particles recovered in the subcellular fraction enriched with lysosomal marker enzymes. It appeared that isolated lysosomal membranes take up added triglycerides at an average rate of 30 nmoles/min/g protein. The bulk of these triglycerides taken up is stored whereas 20% is degraded to diglycerides and free fatty acids. More than 90% of the free fatty acids formed were released from the lysosomes into the supernatant. The uptake and degradation of triglyceride-filled liposomes by isolated myocardial lysosomes was inhibited during incubation with methylamine (5 mM). On the other hand, a lowering of pH during in vitro incubation increased the rate of uptake and degradation of added triglycerides by isolated lysosomes. These results indicate that lysosomes or lysosome-like particles are involved in the enhanced lipolysis during myocardial ischemia.

Cholesteryl esterase activities were determined in homogenates of rat heart (ventricles), isolated, calcium-tolerant, cardiac myocytes and aortic tissue and were compared with acid and neutral triglyceride lipase activities in these fractions. Using cholesteryl oleate/phosphatidylcholine/taurocholate emulsions and digitonin pretreatment of the enzyme fractions, acid and neutral cholesteryl esterase activities were measured in all tissue preparations. In contrast to the acid and neutral triglyceridase and acid cholesteryl esterase activity, the neutral cholesteryl esterase activity was subject to substrate inhibition. Upon isolation of cardiac myocytes, and in contrast with the recovery of neutral triglyceride lipase activity, only a small portion of the neutral cholesteryl esterase (6%) was recovered, suggesting that nonmyocyte neutral cholesteryl esterase activity markedly contributes to the relatively high activity detectable in whole ventricular homogenates. The recovery of large amounts of neutral cholesteryl esterase activity in the supernatant of collagenase-digested heart tissue, obtained during the isolation of myocytes, which is also markedly enriched in activities of two endothelial marker enzymes (5'-nucleotidase and angiotensine-converting enzyme) may indicate the predominant contribution of neutral cholesteryl esterase activity from coronary endothelial cells to this activity detectable in ventricular homogenates. Relative to the activity in ventricular and myocyte homogenates, aorta homogenates possessed the highest specific neutral cholesteryl esterase activity. We propose that in addition to coronary endothelium, smooth muscle cells also contribute to the neutral cholesteryl esterase activity in ventricular homogenates.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

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