Editorial: Metabolic Regulation of Cardiac and Vascular Cell Function: Physiological and Pathophysiological Implications

Abstract

This Research Topic gathers a collection of five original and review articles that provide recent summaries and novel information regarding the role of metabolism in regulating cardiac and vascular cell function. The mammalian heart is a pump that requires a constant supply of energy to maintain function. Cardiac metabolism plays a pivotal role in driving molecular and cellular changes in the heart in response to physiological and pathological stresses. The adult heart generates >95% of its ATP primarily by oxidative phosphorylation in the mitochondria while the remaining 5% comes from glycolysis, or to a lesser extent from the citric acid cycle. In contrast, during development cardiac tissue relies on glycolysis to meet its energy demands during development. However, the postnatal heart undergoes a rapid shift in metabolism to oxidative phosphorylation in response to changes in oxygen tension and maturation. Injury to the adult heart is accompanied by a shift from fatty acid oxidation to glucose use, like a fetal metabolic state, promotes oxygen efficiency for ATP synthesis, considered to be beneficial particularly under ischemic cardiac injury where oxygen supply is limited. Recently, metabolism has been linked to the regulation of gene expression in cardiac cells with levels of several metabolites altered in response to physiological and pathological stresses in the heart.