Rat heart expresses two forms of mitochondrial carnitine palmitoyltransferase I. The minor component is identical to the liver enzyme.

To begin to explore the basis for the tissue-specific expression of mitochondrial carnitine palmitoyltransferase I (CPT I), we focused on three rat tissues (liver, heart, and skeletal muscle) in which the enzyme was known to display very different properties. In Northern blot analysis, a cDNA probe corresponding to liver CPT I readily hybridized to a 4.5-kilobase species of mRNA in liver and heart, but not in skeletal muscle. Using the same probe to screen a neonatal rat heart cDNA library, a full-length clone, surprisingly having 100% sequence identity to the liver CPT I cDNA, was isolated. The paradox was resolved by two additional experiments. First, in Western blots of mitochondrial membranes, an antibody raised against liver CPT I recognized the 88-kDa protein in heart, as well as in liver, but not in skeletal muscle. Second, high specific activity [3H]deschloroetomoxir (a covalent ligand for CPT I) reacted with a single form of CPT I in liver (approximately 88 kDa) and skeletal muscle (approximately 82 kDa), while proteins of both sizes were labeled in the cardiac myocyte. Tritiated ligand binding to the two heart proteins was blocked by excess unlabeled malonyl-CoA. It is concluded that liver and skeletal muscle each contains a single and distinct isoform of CPT I with monomeric size of approximately 88 and 82 kDa, respectively. The heart contains a CPT I protein of approximately 82 kDa in size (probably identical to the skeletal muscle protein) but, importantly, also expresses the liver-type enzyme. The results likely explain why previous studies of heart CPT I yielded an apparent Km for carnitine and I50 value for malonyl-CoA inhibition that were intermediate between those of the liver and skeletal muscle enzymes.