Magnetic resonance spectroscopic investigation of mitochondrial fuel metabolism and energetics in cultured human fibroblasts: Effects of pyruvate dehydrogenase complex deficiency and dichloroacetate

The pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDC) is integral to metabolism and energetics. Congenital PDC deficiency leads to lactic acidosis, neurological degeneration and early death. An investigational compound for such defects is dichloroacetate (DCA), which activates the PDC (inhibiting reversible phosphorylation of the E1α subunit) and decreases its turnover. Here, primary human fibroblast cultures from five healthy subjects and six patients with mutations in the PDC-E1 component were grown in media ± DCA, exposed to media containing 13C-labeled glucose, and studied (as cell extracts) by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Computer modeling of NMR-derived 13C-glutamate isotopomeric patterns estimated relative carbon flow through TCA cycle-associated pathways and characterized effects of PDC deficiency on metabolism and energetics. Rates of glucose consumption (GCR) and lactate production (LPR) were measured. With the exception of one patient cell line expressing an unusual splicing mutation, PDC-deficient cells had significantly higher GCR, LPR and label-derived acetyl-CoA, indicative of increased glycolysis vs. controls. In all cells, DCA caused a major shift (40% decrease) from anaplerotic-related pathways (e.g., pyruvate carboxylase) toward flux through PDC. Ignoring the patient with the splicing mutation, DCA decreased average glycolysis (29%) in patient cells, but had no significant effect on control cells, and did not change LPR or the nucleoside triphosphate to diphosphate ratio (NTP/NDP) in either cell type. Maintenance of NTP despite reduced glycolysis indicates that DCA improves metabolic efficiency by increasing glucose oxidation. This study demonstrates that NMR spectroscopy provides insight into biochemical consequences of PDC deficiency and the mechanism of putative therapeutic agents.