Feasibility of a Mitochondrial Pyruvate Malate Shuttle in Pancreatic Islets

Abstract

Previous studies indicated that in pancreatic islets the amount of glucose-derived pyruvate that enters mitochondrial metabolism via carboxylation is approximately equal to that entering via decarboxylation and that both carboxylation and decarboxylation are correlated with capacitation of glucose metabolism and insulin release. The relatively high rate of carboxylation is consistent with the current study's finding that pyruvate carboxylase is as abundant in pancreatic islets as it is in liver and kidney. Since islets do not contain phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase and, therefore, cannot carry out glyconeogenesis from pyruvate, the carboxylase might be present in the islet to participate in novel anaplerotic reactions. This idea was first explored by incubating mitochondria from various tissues with pyruvate. Mitochondria from tissues, such as pancreatic islets, liver, and kidney, in which pyruvate carboxylase is abundant, exported a large amount of malate and little or no citrate, isocitrate, and aspartate to the medium. The amount of malate within the mitochondria was < 1% that in the medium. When pancreatic islet mitochondria were incubated with [1-14C]pyruvate, radioactive carbon appeared in the medium primarily in malate. Very little radioactivity appeared in amino acids, and little or no radioactivity appeared in citrate and isocitrate. Carbon 1 of pyruvate can be incorporated into malate and other citric acid cycle intermediates only via carboxylation, as this carbon would be lost via decarboxylation when pyruvate enters the citric acid cycle as acetyl-CoA via the pyruvate dehydrogenase reaction. The amount of malate formed equaled the 14CO2 formed and the radioactivity from C-1 of pyruvate recovered in malate slightly exceeded the formation of 14CO2 in agreement with our previous studies that reported a high rate of carboxylation of pyruvate in intact islets. When intact pancreatic islets were incubated with methyl [U-14C]succinate as a mitochondrial source of four-carbon dicarboxylic acids, radioactivity appeared in pyruvate and lactate. Taken together with previous studies, the current results suggest that during glucose-induced insulin secretion there is a shuttle operating across the mitochondrial membrane in which glucose-derived pyruvate is taken up by mitochondria and carboxylated to oxaloacetate by pyruvate carboxylase. The oxaloacetate is converted to malate which exits the mitochondrion, where, in the cytosol, it is decarboxylated to pyruvate in the reaction catalyzed by malic enzyme. This pyruvate re-enters mitochondrial pools. Such a cycle produces NADPH in the cytosol. Since it is a cycle, this shuttle can produce far more NADPH than the pentose phosphate pathway, which is known to be a very minor route of glucose metabolism in the islet.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)