Kimberley M Mellor, Upasna Varma, Parisa Koutsifeli, Lorna J Daniels, Victoria L Benson, Marco Annandale, Xun Li, Yohanes Nursalim, Johannes V Janssens, Kate L Weeks, Kim L Powell, Terence J O'Brien, Rajesh Katare, Rebecca H Ritchie, James R Bell, Roberta A Gottlieb, Lea M D Delbridge
Diabetic heart disease morbidity and mortality is escalating. No specific therapeutics exist and mechanistic understanding of diabetic cardiomyopathy etiology is lacking. While lipid accumulation is a recognized cardiomyocyte phenotype of diabetes, less is known about glycolytic fuel handling and storage. Based on in vitro studies, we postulated the operation of an autophagy pathway in the myocardium specific for glycogen homeostasis - glycophagy. Here we visualize occurrence of cardiac glycophagy and show that the diabetic myocardium is characterized by marked glycogen elevation and altered cardiomyocyte glycogen localization...
March 13, 2024: Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology