Preventing obesity disrupting the heart’s energy supply

Investigation of mitochondrial arrest mechanisms underlying cardiac dysfunction in obesity

Mitochondria are the power houses of cells - they provide energy for all of the cell’s activities. Obesity disrupts the function of the mitochondria, and this is thought to contribute to the higher risk of diabetes and heart failure in people who are overweight. Dr Ashraf Kitmitto’s team at the University of Manchester has discovered that mitochondria become disorganised in the heart cells of obese mice, which means that some parts of the heart aren’t able to get enough energy. They also found that this disorganisation is linked to a molecule found in mitochondria called Miro1. Lower levels of Miro1 are found in the hearts of obese mice compared to mice of a normal weight. In this project, they plan to use electron microscopes to zoom in on intricate structures of the cell, and look at how “switching off” Miro1 affects the mitochondria. They will also study how Miro1 interacts with another molecule called Mfn2, and how this is linked to other important energy processes in the cell. Finally, they will delete Miro1 from heart cells in healthy and obese mice to study how this affects the heart’s function. The research will provide new insights into how obesity leads to disorganised mitochondria in the heart, and could pave the way to treatments that preserve the heart’s energy supply to help prevent heart failure.