3D imaging of the mitochondrial redox state of rat hearts under normal and fasting conditions

Abstract

The heart requires continuous ATP availability that is generated in the mitochondria. Although studies using the cell culture and perfused organ models have been carried out to investigate the biochemistry in the mitochondria in response to a change in substrate supply, mitochondrial bioenergetics of heart under normal feed or fasting conditions has not been studied at the tissue level with a sub-millimeter spatial resolution either in vivo or ex vivo. Oxidation of many food-derived metabolites to generate ATP in the mitochondria is realized through the NADH/NAD+ couple acting as a central electron carrier. We employed the Chance redox scanner — the low-temperature fluorescence scanner to image the three-dimensional (3D) spatial distribution of the mitochondrial redox states in heart tissues of rats under normal feeding or an overnight starvation for 14.5 h. Multiple consecutive sections of each heart were imaged to map three redox indices, i.e., NADH, oxidized flavoproteins (Fp, including flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD)) and the redox ratio NADH/Fp. The imaging results revealed the micro-heterogeneity and the spatial distribution of these redox indices. The quantitative analysis showed that in the fasted hearts the standard deviation of both NADH and Fp, i.e., SD_NADH and SD_Fp, significantly decreased with a p value of 0.032 and 0.045, respectively, indicating that the hearts become relatively more homogeneous after fasting. The fasted hearts contained 28.6% less NADH (p = 0.038). No significant change in Fp was found (p = 0.4). The NADH/Fp ratio decreased with a marginal p value (0.076). The decreased NADH in the fasted hearts is consistent with the cardiac cells' reliance of fatty acids consumption for energy metabolism when glucose becomes scarce. The experimental observation of NADH decrease induced by dietary restriction in the heart at tissue level has not been reported to our best knowledge. The Chance redox scanner demonstrated the feasibility of 3D imaging of the mitochondrial redox state in the heart and provides a useful tool to study heart metabolism and function under normal, dietary-change and pathological conditions at tissue level.