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J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 280, Issue 46, 38125-38132, November 18, 2005
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From the Department of Laboratory Medicine, Division of Clinical Chemistry, C1-74, Karolinska University Hospital at Huddinge, SE-141 86 Stockholm, Sweden
Received for publication, August 2, 2005 , and in revised form, August 25, 2005.
| ABSTRACT |
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-oxidation of fatty acids in the endoplasmic reticulum and degraded as the CoA ester via
-oxidation in peroxisomes. Both synthesis and degradation of dicarboxylic acids occur mainly in kidney and liver, and the chain-shortened dicarboxylic acids are excreted in the urine as the free acids, implying that acyl-CoA thioesterases (ACOTs), which hydrolyze CoA esters to the free acid and CoASH, are needed for the release of the free acids. Recent studies show that peroxisomes contain several acyl-CoA thioesterases with different functions. We have now expressed a peroxisomal acyl-CoA thioesterase with a previously unknown function, ACOT4, which we show is active on dicarboxylyl-CoA esters. We also expressed ACOT8, another peroxisomal acyl-CoA thioesterase that was previously shown to hydrolyze a large variety of CoA esters. Acot4 and Acot8 are both strongly expressed in kidney and liver and are also target genes for the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor
. Enzyme activity measurements with expressed ACOT4 and ACOT8 show that both enzymes hydrolyze CoA esters of dicarboxylic acids with high activity but with strikingly different specificities. Whereas ACOT4 mainly hydrolyzes succinyl-CoA, ACOT8 preferentially hydrolyzes longer dicarboxylyl-CoA esters (glutaryl-CoA, adipyl-CoA, suberyl-CoA, sebacyl-CoA, and dodecanedioyl-CoA). The identification of a highly specific succinyl-CoA thioesterase in peroxisomes strongly suggests that peroxisomal
-oxidation of dicarboxylic acids leads to formation of succinate, at least under certain conditions, and that ACOT4 and ACOT8 are responsible for the termination of
-oxidation of dicarboxylic acids of medium-chain length with the concomitant release of the corresponding free acids. | INTRODUCTION |
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Fatty acid oxidation is an important source of energy, especially during fasting and diabetes. Although mitochondria are considered the primary site for
-oxidation of fatty acids for energy utilization, it is now well established that peroxisomes play a key role in the metabolism of a variety of lipids such as very long-chain fatty acids, branched-chain fatty acids, dicarboxylic fatty acids, bile acid intermediates, prostaglandins, leukotrienes, thromboxanes, pristanic acid, and xenobiotic carboxylic acids (for reviews, see Refs. 1921). The functional importance of peroxisomes is underscored by the severity of peroxisomal disorders such as Zellweger syndrome, X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy, and Refsum disease (for review, see (22)). Most lipids that undergo
-oxidation in peroxisomes are apparently only chain-shortened, and recent data suggest that octanoate and longer chain fatty acids undergo 13 cycles of
-oxidation in peroxisomes (2325). The apparent lack of correlation between acyl chain length and the number of cycles of
-oxidation in peroxisomes suggests that the incomplete oxidation of fatty acids is due to the presence of acyl-CoA thioesterases that "terminate"
-oxidation, which would release free fatty acids that can exit the peroxisome. These free fatty acids may subsequently be transported to the mitochondria for further oxidation, be subject to
-oxidation, or be excreted as free carboxylic acids in the urine. One example is the peroxisomal metabolism of dicarboxylic acids, which results in the production of the medium-chain dicarboxylic acids adipic acid, suberic acid, and sebacic acid, which are excreted in the urine. Dicarboxylic acids are formed by an initial hydroxylation of the
-carbon by microsomal CYP4A enzymes, followed by further oxidations by alcohol dehydrogenase to form the
-oxo-fatty acid and by aldehyde dehydrogenase that finally converts the
-oxo-fatty acid into a dicarboxylic acid (26). It has been suggested that medium-chain fatty acids are the substrates for the initial
-hydroxylation (2729) and that medium-chain dicarboxylic acids are chain-shortened in peroxisomes to adipic acid (C6). In this study we have cloned, expressed, and characterized ACOT4 and show it to be a peroxisomal succinyl-CoA thioesterase. Succinate is excreted in urine, but the origin of urinary succinate is poorly understood. Therefore, these data suggest that succinyl-CoA may be an end product of peroxisomal
-oxidation of dicarboxylic fatty acids and that urinary succinate may at least in part originate from peroxisomes. As discussed above, ACOT8 is a peroxisomal acyl-CoA thioesterase that apparently acts as a "nonspecific" acyl-CoA thioesterase hydrolyzing all acyl-CoAs (14). We also expressed ACOT8 and investigated the activity of ACOT8 with dicarboxylyl-CoA esters. We show that ACOT8 also hydrolyzes CoA esters of dicarboxylic acids but with a different specificity than ACOT4. These data suggest that peroxisomes contain acyl-CoA thioesterases that function in the release of free dicarboxylic acids for excretion in urine.
| EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES |
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Animals and TreatmentsAdult male wild-type (+/+) mice or PPAR
-null (/) mice on a pure Sv/129 genetic background (kindly provided by Dr. Frank Gonzalez and Dr. Jeffrey Peters or purchased from the Jackson Laboratory) were used in this study. The mice were fed either a standard chow diet or a diet containing 0.1% Wy-14,643 (Cal-biochem-Novabiochem International) for 1 week or were fasted for 24 h before sacrifice. Following sacrifice by CO2 asphyxiation and cervical dislocation, tissues were excised, frozen in liquid nitrogen, and stored at 70 °C.
Isolation of Total RNATotal RNA was isolated with TRIzol® Reagent (Invitrogen) or QuickPrep® total RNA extraction reagent (Amersham Biosciences) and DNase-treated.
Cloning and ExpressionThe open reading frame for Acot4 was amplified by RT-PCR using the primers 5'-CATATGGCAGCGACACTGAGC-3' and 5'-CATATGTCTGTTACAGGCAAACC-3' (CyberGene AB, Huddinge, Sweden) with the addition of an NdeI site (indicated in boldface). These primers were designed based on the genomic sequence (GenBankTM accession No. NM_134247
[GenBank]
). Acot4 was cloned into the pET-16b vector (Novagen Inc.), sequenced, and transformed into BL21(DES3)pLysS cells (Novagen Inc.). Protein expression was induced by the addition of 1 mM isopropyl-1-thio-
-D-galactopyr-anoside for 3 h at 37°C. Recombinant protein was affinity purified on a HiTrapTM column (Amersham Biosciences) as described (6). The full-length open reading frame for Acot8 was amplified and cloned into the pET-16b vector, and protein was expressed and purified as described previously (14).
Chemical Synthesis of Medium-chain Dicarboxylyl-CoAsAdipyl-CoA (C6), suberyl-CoA (C8), sebacyl-CoA (C10), and dodecanedioyl-CoA (C12) were synthesized chemically from the free acid by first forming the anhydride followed by the CoA ester as described (30). Instead of adding equal amounts of dicarboxylic acid anhydride and CoASH to the reaction, a molar ratio of 4:1 was used. The products formed were purified by reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography using a C18 Ultrasphere ODS 5-µm (4.6 x 250 mm) column (Beckman) with the mobile phase containing 50 mM ammonium formate, pH 5.4, and a gradient of increasing acetonitrile starting with 5% acetonitrile for 5 min followed by 35 min of a linear increase to 50% acetonitrile and then down to 5% again after 5 min. The dicarboxylyl-CoAs purified were identified by electrospray mass spectrometry in a Quattro microTM triple quadrupole mass spectrometer (Micromass, Wythenshawe, Manchester, UK) equipped with a nano-electrospray ion source. Mass spectra were acquired in the positive ion mode over a mass scan range of m/z 2001200 for 1 min at a scan rate of 5 s per scan. This shows both the whole molecule and a diffracted molecule with a neutral loss of 507, confirming the identification of the correct CoA ester as described previously (31).
Acyl-CoA Thioesterase Activity MeasurementsAcyl-CoA thioesterase activity was measured spectrophotometrically at 412 nm using 5,5'-dithiobis(2-nitrobenzoic acid) as described earlier (14). Recombinant ACOT4 was analyzed for activity with commercially available acyl-CoAs (Sigma), synthesized dicarboxylyl-CoAs (as described above), 4,8-dimethylnonanoyl-CoA, 2-trans-decenoyl-CoA and clofibroyl-CoA. The activity of recombinant ACOT8 protein was measured with the different dicarboxylyl-CoAs. Protein was determined using the Bradford assay (32). The effect of CoASH on the enzyme activity was measured at 232 nm in phosphate-buffered saline. Enzyme kinetics were calculated using the SigmaPlot enzyme kinetics program.
Tissue Expression of Acot4 mRNA Using Quantitative PCRThe tissue expression of Acot4 mRNA was examined by quantitative PCR (Q-PCR) in various tissues from male Sv/129 mice. Pooled samples of total RNA from three individual animals were used for cDNA synthesis. The cDNA synthesis was performed using 1 µg of total RNA using TaqMan reverse transcription reagents (Applied Biosystems). Q-PCR was performed in an ABI Prism 7000 sequence detection system using TaqMan universal PCR master mix (Applied Biosystems). An Acot4 amplicon spanning over the exon 2/exon 3 boundary was amplified using the primers 5'-TTGAAGAAGCAGTGCGGTACA-3' and 5'-AAAGACCCAGAAGCCCAATGT-3' and a probe with 5'-carboxyfluorescein (5'-FAM) and 4-(4-dimethylaminophenyl-azo)benzoic acid (3'-Dabcyl), 5'-CTTCGACATCCAAAGGTAAAAGGCCCA-3' (CyberGene AB). The primers were designed using the Primer Express software (Applied Biosystems), and the PCR product was analyzed by agarose gel electrophoresis and sequenced. As an endogenous control, an amplicon of 18 S was used, using the predeveloped TaqMan Assay Reagent for 18 S rRNA (Applied Biosystems). The Q-PCR was run in single-plex in triplicate for each tissue with cDNA from pooled tissue samples. Thermal cycling was performed at 50 °C for 2 min and 95 °C for 10 min followed by 40 cycles of 95 °C for 15 s and 60 °C for 1 min. Data were analyzed using the ABI Prism 7000 SDS software, and the average cycle threshold (CT) value per triplicate was used to calculate the relative amounts of Acot4 mRNA using the 2
CT method.
Tissue Expression of Cyp4A10 Using RT-PCRTissue expression was examined by RT-PCR in various mouse tissues. A fragment of Cyp4A10 was amplified using the primers 5'-CTGGAGAAAGCTAAGTTGTTG-3' and 5'-TATGCAGGGTAGATTTAGATGA-3' and is located from 15891990 bp of the cDNA sequence (accession number BC051049
[GenBank]
). Thermal cycling was performed for 27 cycles of 94 °C for 30 s, 51 °C for 30 s, and 72 °C for 30 s, and the PCR product was sequenced. A fragment of
-actin was amplified as an endogenous control as described (6), but using 25 cycles.
Regulation of mRNA Expression Using Q-PCR or RT-PCRThe regulation of Acot4 mRNA levels by treatment with 0.1% Wy-14,643 was investigated in livers from control and Wy-14,643-treated wild-type and PPAR
-null mice, and regulation by fasting for 24 h was examined in liver and kidney from wild-type mice. The mRNA expression was investigated by Q-PCR as described above, and each sample was run in triplicate from three individual animals for each treatment. Regulation of expression of Cyp4A10 mRNA levels by fasting was investigated in kidney from wild-type mice by RT-PCR as described above, with the exception that the PCR was run for 24 cycles.
Western Blot AnalysisThe regulation of ACOT4 protein expression by Wy-14,643 treatment was examined in liver from wild-type and PPAR
-null mice, and regulation by fasting was investigated in kidney from wild-type mice.
Western blotting was performed as described in (33). Anti-rabbit ACOT4 antisera (Sigma Genosys) were raised in rabbits immunized with a peptide with the amino acid sequence CNPSMIPIEKAKGPI, with an N-terminal cysteine added for coupling of the peptide to the carrier protein keyhole limpet hemocyanin. The peptide used corresponds to amino acids 305318 of the ACOT4 protein (5). The antibody was affinity purified as described (6).
| RESULTS |
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Subcellular Localization Experiments Show That Acot4 Is Localized in PeroxisomesACOT4 contains a putative consensus type 1 peroxisomal targeting signal (PTS1) of Cys-Arg-Leu (-CRL) at the carboxyl-terminal end of the protein, which may target the protein to peroxisomes (34). To establish the cellular localization of ACOT4, we expressed the open reading frame in-frame with an N-terminal GFP in both control fibroblasts and fibroblasts from a Zellweger patient. The Zellweger syndrome is a peroxisome biogenesis disorder caused by defects in peroxisome assembly most commonly due to PEX5 deficiency (35). The ACOT4-GFP fusion protein showed a punctate pattern of expression in control fibroblasts, indicating a peroxisomal localization (Fig. 1A). However, in fibroblasts from the Zellweger patient, ACOT4 expression resulted in a diffuse labeling throughout the cells with no punctate labeling, indicating that ACOT4 remained in the cytosol (Fig. 1B). These results confirm that ACOT4 is indeed a peroxisomal protein.
Characterization of Recombinant Acot4 Shows That It Is a Specific Succinyl-CoA/Glutaryl-CoA ThioesteraseBoth ACOT4 and ACOT8 (14) were expressed as His-tagged fusion proteins and purified. The purified proteins were detected by SDS-PAGE as single bands of
50 and
35 kDa stained with Coomassie Brilliant Blue (Fig. 2).
The recombinant ACOT4 protein was analyzed for thioesterase activity with acetyl-CoA (C2:0), propionyl-CoA (C3:0), butyryl-CoA (C4:0), heptanoyl-CoA (C5:0), hexanoyl-CoA (C6:0), octanoyl-CoA (C8:0), decanoyl-CoA (C10:0), lauroyl-CoA (C12:0), myristoyl-CoA (C14:0), palmitoyl-CoA (C16:0), palmitoleoyl-CoA (C16:1), stearoyl-CoA (C18:0), oleoyl-CoA (18:1), elaidoyl-CoA (C18:1 trans), linoleoyl-CoA (C18:2), arachidoyl-CoA (C20:0), arachidonoyl-CoA (C20:4), acetoacetyl-CoA, DL-
-hydroxybutyryl-CoA, isovaleryl-CoA, crotonyl-CoA, DL-3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA, malonyl-CoA, succinyl-CoA, and glutaryl-CoA. We also tested the activity with some noncommercially available substrates including adipyl-CoA, suberyl-CoA, sebacyl-CoA, dodecanedioyl-CoA, behenoyl-CoA (C22:0-CoA), 4,8-dimethylnonanoyl-CoA, 2-trans-decenoyl-CoA, clofibroyl-CoA, choloyl-CoA, and trihydroxycoprostanoyl-CoA. However, ACOT4 was only active with succinyl-CoA and glutaryl-CoA. The activity with these substrates conformed to Michaelis-Menten kinetics with calculated Vmax values of 3.98 ± 0.16 and 1.14 ± 0.16 µmol/min/mg protein for succinyl-CoA and glutaryl-CoA, respectively (TABLE ONE). The corresponding calculated Km values were 13.3 ± 1.32 and 37.1 ± 9.05 µM, respectively, suggesting that succinyl-CoA is the preferred substrate for ACOT4.
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Acot4 Is Mainly Expressed in Kidney and LiverTissue expression of Acot4 at the mRNA level was examined using Q-PCR with RNA isolated from several tissues. The Q-PCR data showed that Acot4 is most strongly expressed in kidney, followed by liver and proximal and distal intestines (Fig. 4). The expression was 20% or less in all other tissues tested, compared with kidney.
Acot4 Expression Is Regulated via PPAR
Previous Northern blot analysis showed that the expression of Acot4 is up-regulated in mouse liver following clofibrate treatment (33). To quantitatively study the regulation of Acot4 expression by the PPAR
agonist Wy-14,643, Q-PCR was performed using total RNA isolated from control and Wy-14,643-treated wild-type and PPAR
-null mice. Notably, the basal expression of Acot4 mRNA is
2-fold higher in livers of PPAR
-null mice compared with that in wild-type mice. Treatment with Wy-14,643 increased the mRNA expression
13-fold in wild-type mice, but no increase was seen in the PPAR
-null animals, showing PPAR
-mediated regulation of expression (Fig. 5A). The up-regulation of Acot4 expression by Wy-14,643 treatment was confirmed also at protein level by Western blot analysis (Fig. 5B).
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-Hydroxylating Enzyme Cyp4A10Based on the kinetic characterization of recombinant ACOT4, which showed that the enzyme is specific for short-chain dicarboxylyl-CoAs and is most highly expressed in kidney and liver, we hypothesize that ACOT4 (and ACOT8) may play a role in the metabolism of dicarboxylic acids. The initial step in formation of dicarboxylic acids is
-hydroxylation of fatty acids, a reaction that is catalyzed by cytochrome P450s of the CYP4A family. We therefore set out to study the tissue expression and regulation by fasting of Cyp4A10, an enzyme that preferentially hydroxylates lauric acid. The Cyp4A10 tissue expression was examined by RT-PCR using tissue samples that were pooled from three individual male Sv/129 mice. Cyp4A10 was most highly expressed in liver, kidney, and proximal intestine (Fig. 6), which is in line with the expression of Acot4.
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1.5-fold in kidney (Fig. 7A). This up-regulation by fasting in kidney was also confirmed at the protein level by Western blot analysis (Fig. 7B). Regulation of expression of Cyp4A10 by fasting in kidney was examined with RT-PCR, which showed that Cyp4A10 is also up-regulated by fasting (Fig. 7C). Thus, Acot4 and Cyp4A10 show similar tissue expression and regulation, which further supports a role for Acot4 in the metabolism of dicarboxylic acids. | DISCUSSION |
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15 µM (14), whereas ACOT4 activity is insensitive to CoASH added up to 500 µM (this study). The consequence of the different regulation by CoASH is likely to be reflected in that ACOT4 would be constitutively active, whereas the activity of ACOT8 will depend on free intraperoxisomal CoASH levels, which may change under different physiological conditions.
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-oxidation of dicarboxylic acids. Succinyl-CoA can be formed from the metabolism of methionine, valine, and isoleucine (via the formation of propionyl-CoA, which can be further converted to succinyl-CoA), but the only amino acid suggested to be metabolized in peroxisomes is lysine (for review, see Ref. 36), which produces glutaryl-CoA as an intermediate. Although pipecolic acid oxidase is the only enzyme in this pathway that has been identified as a peroxisomal enzyme, it is possible that glutaryl-CoA may be produced in peroxisomes by this pathway or, alternatively, further metabolized in peroxisomes. Glutaryl-CoA may also be produced in peroxisomes via
-oxidation of odd-numbered dicarboxylic acids. The possibility of a further chain-shortening of glutaryl-CoA to malonyl-CoA has been put forward by Sacksteder et al. (37), who demonstrated that peroxisomes contain a malonyl-CoA decarboxylase. However, the further metabolism of glutaryl-CoA in peroxisomes is not clear. Although peroxisomal straight-chain acyl-CoA oxidase can catalyze the dehydrogenation to glutaconyl-CoA (38), peroxisomes apparently do not decarboxylate glutaconyl-CoA, suggesting that glutaryl-CoA is not metabolized in peroxisomes (39). A possible function for ACOT4 could thus be to release glutaric acid for excretion in urine.
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-oxidation. Subsequently, succinate has also been shown to be present in considerable amounts in urine under normal conditions (41) in addition to longer chain dicarboxylic acids like adipic acid, suberic acid, and sebacic acid, which are found in increased amounts in urine under conditions of high
-oxidation such as fasting, fat-feeding, and diabetes (28, 4143). Formation of dicarboxylic acids is a three-step process initiated by
-hydroxylation and catalyzed by P450 mono-oxygenases of the CYP4A family that are associated with the endoplasmic reticulum to form
-hydroxy monocarboxylic acid (44), followed by further oxidation by cytosolic long-chain alcohol and aldehyde dehydrogenases to form
-keto-monocarboxylic acids and finally dicarboxylic acids. There are several different
-hydroxylases belonging to the CYP4A family, and the enzyme active on straight medium-chain fatty acids (laurate hydroxylase) in mouse is named CYP4A10 (45). However, long-chain fatty acids can also be
-oxidized to dicarboxylic acids, which can occur via both NAD+ and NADPH-dependent pathways (26). Dicarboxylic acids can be activated to the corresponding CoA ester by a microsomal dicarboxylyl-CoA synthetase, which is expressed mainly in kidney and liver but not in muscle (46, 47).
Several studies have addressed the issue of whether
-oxidation of dicarboxylic fatty acids occurs in mitochondria (48) or in peroxisomes (39, 47, 4951), but most studies suggest that it occurs completely, or at least mainly, in peroxisomes. The important role of peroxisomes was further supported by a recent study (52) employing human skin fibroblasts deficient in mitochondrial
-oxidation that showed that
-oxidation of at least C16 dicarboxylic acids is solely a peroxisomal process (52). Also, the peroxisomal
-oxidation enzymes show 1550-fold lower Km values for dicarboxylyl-CoAs than the mitochondrial enzymes. Recently, the enzymology of the peroxisomal pathway for
-oxidation of dicarboxylic acids was elucidated, showing that at least C16 dicarboxylic acid is primarily oxidized by the sequential action of the straight-chain acyl-CoA oxidase, the L- and D-specific bifunctional proteins, and the sterol carrier protein x, possibly also involving the classic 3-ketoacyl-CoA thiolase. Although several of the enzymes involved in
-oxidation of dicarboxylic acids are induced by clofibrate treatment in rats and mice, this treatment is not sufficient to cause increased production of dicarboxylic acids, probably due to lack of substrate and/or lack of induction of the dicarboxylyl-CoA synthetase, which is likely to be the rate-limiting step in
-oxidation of dicarboxylic acids (43, 47, 51). Studies into the tissue distribution of peroxisomal dicarboxylyl-CoA oxidation showed that the activity is highest in kidney followed by liver and proximal intestine, with only very low activity detected in heart and no detectable activity in skeletal muscle (42, 53). In this study we show that Acot4 and Cyp4A10 are mainly expressed in kidney and liver, and we showed previously that Acot8 is strongly expressed in these tissues (14), which is similar to the reported tissue distribution of dicarboxylic acid synthesis and peroxisomal
-oxidation activity of dicarboxylyl-CoA esters. Furthermore, Acot4 (this study), Acot8 (14), and Cyp4A10 (54) are all strongly up-regulated by Wy-14,643 treatment, similar to the straight-chain acyl-CoA oxidase, which catalyzes the initial step in the
-oxidation of dicarboxylyl-CoAs.
Dicarboxylic acids metabolized in peroxisomes are believed to originate from medium-chain monocarboxylic acids produced in mitochondria (29, 41, 51), but long- and very long-chain monocarboxylic acids have also been proposed as origins for dicarboxylic acid production. In vivo, in situ, and in vitro experiments on the oxidation of dicarboxylic acids of various chain lengths show that dodecanedioic acid is most readily oxidized followed by sebacic acid and suberic acid, whereas adipic acid is not metabolized at all. The role of mitochondria in providing medium-chain fatty acids for subsequent synthesis of medium-chain dicarboxylic acids is further supported by the fact that Zellweger patients excrete increased amounts of adipic acid, suberic acid, and sebacic acid in the urine (5557). In particular, these patients excrete increased levels of suberic and sebacic acid, which suggest that peroxisomes normally chain-shorten these dicarboxylic acids to adipic acid and, thus, that there is a relative block in the conversion to adipic acid in Zellweger patients. It is not clear whether peroxisomes metabolize adipyl-CoA to succinyl-CoA. Feeding adipic acid to rats results in excretion of the unchanged acid, suggesting that adipic acid is not metabolized at all (42). However, this is likely due to the lack of activation of adipic acid to the corresponding CoA ester, because the dicarboxylyl-CoA synthetase is not active on short-chain dicarboxylic acids (46). If adipyl-CoA is formed in peroxisomes from suberyl-CoA, it appears plausible that adipyl-CoA can be chain-shortened to succinyl-CoA. Therefore, because succinate is found in urine and a succinyl-CoA thioesterase in peroxisomes has been identified, our data suggest that peroxisomal
-oxidation of dicarboxylic fatty acids may proceed to succinyl-CoA, followed by hydrolysis to succinate by ACOT4 for excretion in urine. It is also possible that succinate formed in peroxisomes can be transferred to mitochondria to enter the Krebs cycle. It has been shown that catabolism of dicarboxylic acids have an anti-ketogenic effect (41, 49, 50, 58), which has been attributed to succinate entering the Krebs cycle and thereby lowering acetyl-CoA levels and ketone body production. However, odd carbon number dicarboxylic acids also exhibit the same anti-ketogenic effect, which should not produce succinate (58). It is possible that the anti-ketogenic effect by dicarboxylic acid metabolism is not necessarily related to the breakdown of dicarboxylic acids but rather to peroxisomal
-oxidation in general, which produces acetyl-CoA (49, 50). This acetyl-CoA is hydrolyzed to acetate and then transported out of the peroxisome. Several studies suggest that acetate/acetyl-CoA produced in peroxisomes is not transported to mitochondria but rather used to synthesize malonyl-CoA (2325, 49, 50) or for biosynthetic purposes such as, for example, fatty acid and cholesterol biosynthesis.
Possible Role for Peroxisomes in Synthesis and Metabolism of Dicarboxylic AcidsSeveral studies provide evidence that peroxisomes partially
-oxidize fatty acids longer than hexanoate, and octanoate is
-oxidized 12 cycles whereas longer-chain fatty acids have been suggested to be chain-shortened to C12 and C14 fatty acids (2325). As outlined in Fig. 8, we propose that peroxisomal acyl-CoA thioesterases (mainly ACOT3, ACOT5, and ACOT8) are responsible for the incomplete
-oxidation of fatty acids in peroxisomes by premature hydrolysis of the CoA esters, which removes acyl-CoAs from the
-oxidation system. By this mechanism, medium-chain fatty acids are produced that can leave the peroxisome and become accessible for
-oxidation in the endoplasmic reticulum, mainly in kidney and liver. The dicarboxylic acids formed by
-oxidation are activated to the corresponding CoA esters and can re-enter the peroxisomal
-oxidation system for further chain shortening. Under conditions when the peroxisomal
-oxidation system is not saturated, that is, under conditions when CoASH is not completely sequestered ACOT8 is inhibited by CoASH and
-oxidation may proceed to succinyl-CoA, which is hydrolyzed by ACOT4. However, under ketotic conditions when the peroxisomal
-oxidation system may be saturated, ACOT8 is activated and hydrolyzes longer chain dicarboxylic CoA esters to release more adipic acid and suberic acid. We are not aware of data demonstrating actual production of succinate from peroxisomal
-oxidation of dicarboxylic acids, and although one study reported that adipic acid was the shortest chain length detected (50), other studies have indicated that succinate may be formed during peroxisomal
-oxidation of dicarboxylic acids (49). However, the identification of an apparently specific succinyl-CoA thioesterase in peroxisomes strongly suggests that succinyl-CoA is formed in peroxisomes. This possibility is further supported by our recent finding that the human ortholog for ACOT4 shows a similar substrate specificity.3 Succinate formed by ACOT4 can be excreted into urine and, at least in part, contribute to the succinate that is found in urine normally or be transported to the mitochondria.
In conclusion, in this study we have identified a novel peroxisomal thioesterase, ACOT4, which is highly specific for succinyl-CoA, with tissue expression and regulation of expression being compatible with a role in metabolism of dicarboxylic acids. We also characterized ACOT8 and show that it is also highly active on CoA esters of dicarboxylic acids but demonstrates a substrate specificity that is distinct from ACOT4. These data suggest that ACOT4 and ACOT8 regulate
-oxidation of dicarboxylic acids in peroxisomes, which may under certain conditions proceed to succinyl-CoA.
| FOOTNOTES |
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1 To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel.: 46-8-585-81274; Fax: 46-8-585-81260; E-mail: stefan.alexson{at}ki.se
2 The abbreviations used are: ACOT, acyl-CoA thioesterase; PPAR
, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-
; CYP4A, cytochrome p450 4A (enzyme); GFP, green fluorescent protein; RT-PCR, reverse transcription PCR; Q-PCR, quantitative PCR. ![]()
3 M. C. Hunt, A. Rautanen, L. T. Svensson, and S. E. H. Alexson, manuscript in preparation. ![]()
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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