【摘 要】
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Background: Efficient and selective utilization of metabolic substrates is one of the key strategies in high-altitude animals to cope with hypoxia and hypothermia. Previous findings have shown that the energy substrate utilization of highland animals vari
【机 构】
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Key Laboratory of Animal Physiology,Biochemistry and Molecular Biol- ogy of Hebei Province,College o
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Background: Efficient and selective utilization of metabolic substrates is one of the key strategies in high-altitude animals to cope with hypoxia and hypothermia. Previous findings have shown that the energy substrate utilization of highland animals varies with evolutionary history and phylogeny. The heart is a proxy for the cardiopulmonary system, and the metabolic substrate utilization in the myocardium is also under the strong selective pressure of chronically hypoxic and hypothermic environments. However, little information is available on the physiological adjustments in relation to metabolic substrate utilization in the myocardium for coping with high-altitude environments. Methods: We compared the metabolic enzyme activities, including hexokinase (HK), phosphofructokinase (PFK), pyruvate kinase (PK), citrate synthase (CS), carnitine palmitoyl transferase 1 (CPT-1), lactic dehydrogenase (LDH), and creatine kinase (CK), and metabolic substrate contents including glucose (Glu), triglyceride (TG), and free fatty acid (FFA) in the myocardium of a typical human commensal species, Eurasian Tree Sparrows (Passer montanus) between the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (the QTP, 3230 m) and low altitude population (Shijiazhuang, 80 m), and between sexes. Results: Among the seven metabolic enzymes and three substrates investigated, we identified no significant differ-ences in PK, CPT-1, HK, CS, LDH, and CK activities and TG content of the myocardium between high and low altitude populations. However, the QTP sparrows had significantly lower Glu content and PFK activities but higher FFA content relative to their lowland counterparts. In addition, male sparrows had higher myocardial HK and CS activities relative to females, independent of altitude. Conclusions: Our results showed that the QTP sparrows elevated fatty acid utilization rather than glucose preference in the myocardium relative to lowland counterpart, which contributes to uncovering both the physiological adjust-ments for adapting to the extreme conditions of the QTP, intraspecifically.
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