Acetyl-CoA from inflammation-induced fatty acids oxidation promotes hepatic malate-aspartate shuttle activity and glycolysis.

Hepatic metabolic syndrome is associated with inflammation, as inflammation stimulates the reprogramming of nutrient metabolism and hepatic mitochondria-generated acetyl-CoA, but how acetyl-CoA affects the reprogramming of nutrient metabolism, especially glucose and fatty acids, in the condition of inflammation is still unclear. Here, we used an acute inflammation model in which pigs were injected with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and found that hepatic glycolysis and fatty acid oxidation are both promoted. Acetyl-proteome profiling of LPS-infected pigs liver showed that inflammatory stress exacerbates the acetylation of mitochondrial proteins. Both mitochondrial glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase 2 (GOT2) and malate dehydrogenase 2 (MDH2) were acetylated, and the malate-aspartate shuttle (MAS) activity was stimulated to maintain glycolysis. With the use of C-carbon tracing in vitro, acetyl-CoA was found to be mainly supplied by lipid-derived fatty acid oxidation rather than glucose-derived pyruvate oxidative decarboxylation, while glucose was mainly used for lactate production in response to inflammatory stress. The results of the mitochondrial experiment showed that acetyl-CoA directly increases MDH2 and, in turn, the GOT2 acetylation level affects MAS activity. Treatment with palmitate in primary hepatocytes from LPS-injected pigs increased the hepatic production of acetyl-CoA, pyruvate, and lactate; MAS activity; and hepatic MDH2 and GOT2 hyperacetylation, while the deficiency of long-chain acetyl-CoA dehydrogenase resulted in the stabilization of these parameters. These observations suggest that acetyl-CoA produced by fatty acid oxidation promotes MAS activity and glycolysis via nonenzymatic acetylation during the inflammatory stress response.