BMC Seminar Thursday February 4th at 12:00 in room 343, Læknagarður,
Speaker: Dr.Lilja Kjalardóttir, Chief Scientific Officer at Genís hf.
Title: Chronic over-nutrition and mitochondrial dysfunction.
The work presented was performed by Dr.Lilja during her postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Deborah Muoio at Duke University.
Abstract: Normal energy metabolism allows for efficient switching between glucose and fat oxidation in response to physiological and nutritional circumstances. Elaborate multi-level metabolic network control substrate utilization in response to exercise, and as we cycle through the fed and fasted state. When this control network runs smoothly the system is characterized as being metabolically flexible. This system often fails in the obesity-related metabolic syndrome. Over-nutrition can lead to metabolic inflexibility, in which nutrient overload and heightened substrate competition result in mitochondrial indecision, impaired fuel switching, and energy dysregulation. Loss of mitochondrial Carnitine Acetyltransferase (CRAT) leads to metabolic inflexibility, mitochondrial dysfunction and glucose intolerance. In attempt to understand how this enzyme leads to glucose intolerance we discovered that loss of CRAT results in build-up of mitochondrial Acetyl-CoA and mitochondrial protein hyper-acetylation.