Specific Compounds Derived from Traditional Chinese Medicine Ameliorate Lipid-Induced Contractile Dysfunction in Cardiomyocytes.

Chronic lipid overconsumption, associated with the Western diet, causes excessive cardiac lipid accumulation, insulin resistance, and contractile dysfunction, altogether termed lipotoxic cardiomyopathy (LCM). Existing treatments for LCM are limited. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has been shown as beneficial in diabetes and its complications. The following compounds-Resveratrol, Quercetin, Berberine, Baicalein, and Isorhamnetin-derived from TCM and often used to treat type 2 diabetes. However, virtually nothing is known about their effects in the lipid-overexposed heart. Lipid-induced insulin resistance was generated in HL-1 cardiomyocytes and adult rat cardiomyocytes by 24 h exposure to high palmitate. Upon simultaneous treatment with each of the TCM compounds, we measured myocellular lipid accumulation, insulin-stimulated fatty acid and glucose uptake, phosphorylation levels of AKT and ERK1/2, plasma membrane appearance of GLUT4 and CD36, and expression of oxidative stress-/inflammation-related genes and contractility. In lipid-overloaded cardiomyocytes, all the selected TCM compounds prevented lipid accumulation. These compounds also preserved insulin-stimulated CD36 and GLUT4 translocation and insulin-stimulated glucose uptake in an Akt-independent manner. Moreover, all the TCM compounds prevented and restored lipid-induced contractile dysfunction. Finally, some (not all) of the TCM compounds inhibited oxidative stress-related SIRT3 expression, and others reduced inflammatory TNFα expression. Their ability to restore CD36 trafficking makes all these TCM compounds attractive natural supplements for LCM treatment.

Cerebrovascular glycocalyx damage and microcirculation impairment in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy.

Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is increasingly associated with blood-brain barrier dysfunction and microvascular alterations, yet the pathophysiological link is missing. An important barrier function is exerted by the glycocalyx, a gel-like layer coating the endothelium. To explore such associations, we used intraoperative videomicroscopy to quantify glycocalyx and microcirculation properties of the neocortex and hippocampus of 15 patients undergoing resective brain surgery as treatment for drug-resistant TLE, and 15 non-epileptic controls. Fluorescent lectin staining of neocortex and hippocampal tissue was used for blood vessel surface area quantification. Neocortical perfused boundary region, the thickness of the glycocalyx' impaired layer, was higher in patients (2.64 ± 0.52 µm) compared to controls (1.31 ± 0.29 µm), P < 0.01, indicative of reduced glycocalyx integrity in patients. Moreover, erythrocyte flow velocity analysis revealed an impaired ability of TLE patients to (de-)recruit capillaries in response to changing metabolic demands (R2 = 0.75, P < 0.01), indicating failure of neurovascular coupling mechanisms. Blood vessel quantification comparison between intraoperative measurements and resected tissue showed strong correlation (R2 = 0.94, P < 0.01). This is the first report on in vivo assessment of glycocalyx and microcirculation properties in TLE patients, confirming the pivotal role of cerebrovascular changes. Further assessment of the cerebral microcirculation in relation to epileptogenesis might open avenues for new therapeutic targets for drug-resistant epilepsy.

Pro-Inflammatory Implications of 2-Hydroxypropyl-ß-cyclodextrin Treatment.

Lifestyle- and genetically induced disorders related to disturbances in cholesterol metabolism have shown the detrimental impact of excessive cholesterol levels on a plethora of pathological processes such as inflammation. In this context, two-hydroxypropyl-ß-cyclodextrin (CD) is increasingly considered as a novel pharmacological compound to decrease cellular cholesterol levels due to its ability to increase cholesterol solubility. However, recent findings have reported contra-indicating events after the use of CD questioning the clinical applicability of this compound. Given its potential as a therapeutic compound in metabolic inflammatory diseases, in this study, we evaluated the inflammatory effects of CD administration in the context of cholesterol-induced metabolic inflammation in vivo and in vitro. The inflammatory and cholesterol-depleting effects of CD were first investigated in low-density lipoprotein receptor knockout (Ldlr-/ ) mice that were transplanted with Npc1nih or Npc1wt bone marrow and were fed either regular chow or a high-fat, high-cholesterol (HFC) diet for 12 weeks, thereby creating an extreme model of lysosomal cholesterol-induced metabolic inflammation. In the final three weeks, these mice received daily injections of either control (saline) or CD subcutaneously. Subsequently, the inflammatory properties of CD were investigated in vitro in two macrophage cell lines and in murine bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDMs). While CD administration improved cholesterol mobilization outside lysosomes in BMDMs, an overall pro-inflammatory profile was observed after CD treatment, evidenced by increased hepatic inflammation in vivo and a strong increase in cytokine release and inflammatory gene expression in vitro in murine BMDMs and macrophages cell lines. Nevertheless, this CD-induced pro-inflammatory profile was time-dependent, as short term exposure to CD did not result in a pro-inflammatory response in BMDM. While CD exerts desired cholesterol-depleting effects, its inflammatory effect is dependent on the exposure time. As such, using CD in the clinic, especially in a metabolic inflammatory context, should be closely monitored as it may lead to undesired, pro-inflammatory side effects.

Palmitate-Induced Vacuolar-Type H+-ATPase Inhibition Feeds Forward Into Insulin Resistance and Contractile Dysfunction.

Dietary fat overconsumption leads to myocardial lipid accumulation through mechanisms that are incompletely resolved. Previously, we identified increased translocation of the fatty acid transporter CD36 from its endosomal storage compartment to the sarcolemma as the primary mechanism of excessive myocellular lipid import. Here, we show that increased CD36 translocation is caused by alkalinization of endosomes resulting from inhibition of proton pumping activity of vacuolar-type H+-ATPase (v-ATPase). Endosomal alkalinization was observed in hearts from rats fed a lard-based high-fat diet and in rodent and human cardiomyocytes upon palmitate overexposure, and appeared as an early lipid-induced event preceding the onset of insulin resistance. Either genetic or pharmacological inhibition of v-ATPase in cardiomyocytes exposed to low palmitate concentrations reduced insulin sensitivity and cardiomyocyte contractility, which was rescued by CD36 silencing. The mechanism of palmitate-induced v-ATPase inhibition involved its dissociation into two parts: the cytosolic V1 and the integral membrane V0 subcomplex. Interestingly, oleate also inhibits v-ATPase function, yielding triacylglycerol accumulation but not insulin resistance. In conclusion, lipid oversupply increases CD36-mediated lipid uptake that directly impairs v-ATPase function. This feeds forward to enhanced CD36 translocation and further increased lipid uptake. In the case of palmitate, its accelerated uptake ultimately precipitates into cardiac insulin resistance and contractile dysfunction.

Accumulation of recalcitrant xylan in mushroom-compost is due to a lack of xylan substituent removing enzyme activities of Agaricus bisporus.

The ability of Agaricus bisporus to degrade xylan in wheat straw based compost during mushroom formation is unclear. In this paper, xylan was extracted from the compost with water, 1M and 4M alkali. Over the phases analyzed, the remaining xylan was increasingly substituted with (4-O-methyl-)glucuronic acid and arabinosyl residues, both one and two arabinosyl residues per xylosyl residue remained. In the 1M and 4M KOH soluble solids of spent compost, 33 and 49 out of 100 xylosyl residues, respectively, were substituted. The accumulation of glucuronic acid substituents matched with the analysis that the two A. bisporus genes encoding for α-glucuronidase activity (both GH115) were not expressed in the A. bisporus mycelium in the compost during fruiting. Also, in a maximum likelihood tree it was shown that it is not likely that A. bisporus possesses genes encoding for the activity to remove arabinose from xylosyl residues having two arabinosyl residues.