CHANGE-UP: Healthy cardiomyocytes (left panel) mainly use fatty acids as their energy source. But in a mouse model of heart failure and in failing human hearts (right panel), cardiomyocytes depend more on ketones for energy.
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The paper
G. Aubert et al., “The failing heart relies on ketone bodies as a fuel,” Circulation, 133:698-705, 2016.
As organs go, the heart is an energy hog. To keep it fueled, mitochondria within cardiomyocytes (heart muscle cells) constantly churn out ATP as a product of the citric acid cycle. In the heart, most of the cycle’s substrates come from the metabolism of fatty acids, but the organ can also make use of other compounds such as lactate or ketones.
When Daniel Kelly of Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute in Orlando, Florida, learned that some rare genetic disorders both cause dysfunction of the heart muscle and simultaneously disrupt fatty acid oxidation and increase ketone metabolism, he wondered if ketones might play a role in ...
