Regulation of carnitine palmitoyltransferase I (CPT-Iα) gene expression by the peroxisome proliferator activated receptor gamma coactivator (PGC-1) isoforms

The peroxisome proliferator activated receptor gamma coactivators (PGC-1) have important roles in mitochondrial biogenesis and metabolic control in a variety of tissues. There are multiple isoforms of PGC-1 including PGC-1α and PGC-1β. Both the PGC-1α and β isoforms promote mitochondrial biogenesis and fatty acid oxidation, but only PGC-1α stimulates gluconeogenesis in the liver. Carnitine palmitoyltransferase I (CPT-I) is a key enzyme regulating mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation. In these studies, we determined that PGC-1β stimulated expression of the “liver” isoform of CPT-I (CPT-Iα) but that PGC-1β did not induce pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase 4 (PDK4) which is a regulator of pyruvate metabolism. The CPT-Iα gene is induced by thyroid hormone. We found that T3 increased the expression of PGC-1β and that PGC-1β enhanced the T3 induction of CPT-Iα. The thyroid hormone receptor interacts with PGC-1β in a ligand dependent manner. Unlike PGC-1α, the interaction of PGC-1β and the T3 receptor does not occur exclusively through the leucine-X-X-leucine-leucine motif in PGC-1β. We have found that PGC-1β is associated with the CPT-Iα gene in vivo. Overall, our results demonstrate that PGC-1β is a coactivator in the T3 induction of CPT-Iα and that PGC-1β has similarities and differences with the PGC-1α isoform.