Background
We have known for decades that type 2 diabetes mellitus diabetes (T2DM) increases the risk of heart disease [
1]. Indeed, the observation is so common that this phenomenon is referred to as “diabetic heart disease”, bringing attention to the fact that cardiovascular complications are the most common cause of mortality in those suffering with T2DM [
2,
3]. Considering the increasing incidence of T2DM worldwide [
4], and the remarkable number of undiagnosed cases, at least in early stages [
5], understanding the nature of the relationship between these two pathologies may prevent heart disease and prolong healthy living among those with T2DM.
Reflective of the prevailing understanding of the etiology of T2DM, a great deal of research efforts have focused on glucose and glycemic control as the causal factors between T2DM and heart disease [
6‐
10]. This focus has elucidated several glucose-related mechanisms, such as the reduction of glucose to sorbitol [
11], and especially, the formation of advanced glycation end-products (AGE) and activation of its receptor (RAGE) [
12‐
14]. Moreover, whether a consequence of RAGE activation or a distinct mechanism, hyperglycemia is known to induce inflammation [
15]. Similarly, poor glycemic control may disrupt mitochondrial function and increase production of reactive oxygen species [
16].
However, while the focus on glucose as a mediating mechanism linking T2DM to cardiovascular complications has yielded valuable insight, it nevertheless ignores what may be at least an equally relevant etiological factor of T2DM etiology—insulin. Pories and Dohm recently posited that excess insulin, not glucose, is the essential factor in T2DM onset [
17], a position supported by considerable evidence [
18]. T2DM is a progressive spectrum of insulin resistance, with overt T2DM representing a state where insulin secretion, despite being elevated, is no longer sufficient to control blood glucose. As some have recommended a paradigm shift from looking at diabetes as a consequence of hyperinsulinemia rather than hyperglycemia, we are prompted to explore the causal relationship between T2DM and heart disease in a similar light.
Previous reports have observed a role for insulin in the etiology cardiovascular complications [
19]. Importantly, insulin therapy, despite adequately controlling blood glucose, has been shown to increase mortality in T2DM [
20]. Similar to glucose-induced mechanisms (e.g., AGE formation, etc.), insulin has distinct downstream mediators; one mediator may be the sphingolipid ceramide. Ceramides are increasingly recognized as an injurious mediator of heart pathologies [
21‐
25] and we have recently found that insulin increases ceramide biosynthesis and accrual in skeletal muscle [
26,
27]. In light of the evidence suggesting a role for insulin in the etiology of heart complications, the purpose of these experiments was to determine the effect of insulin on heart ceramides, as well as possible ceramide-induced alterations in mitochondrial function.
Methods
Cell culture
H9c2 cardiomyocytes were maintained in DMEM +10 % FBS. For differentiation into myotubes, cells were grown to confluency and the medium was replaced with DMEM +10 % horse serum (Invitrogen, Grand Island, NY). Myotubes were used for experiments on day 3 of differentiation. Cells were treated with insulin (50 nM; Actrapid; Novo Nordisk, Plainsboro, NJ) and myriocin (10 µM; Sigma), an inhibitor of serine palmitoyltransferase, at the times indicated.
Animals
Sixteen-week-old male C57Bl/6 mice were separated into one of four groups (six per group) to receive morning injections of saline (PBS), insulin (daily; 0.75 U/kg/BW; Actrapid; Novo Nordisk, Plainsboro, NJ), myriocin (thrice weekly; 0.3 mg/kg; Sigma) or both for 28 days with free access to water and chow (Harlan 8604) throughout the length of the study. After the 28-d treatment, mice underwent intraperitoneal glucose (G7021; Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO) and insulin (Actrapid; Novo Nordisk, Plainsboro, NJ) tolerance tests. For both tests, mice were fasted for 6 h and received an injection of either glucose (1 g/kg body wt) or insulin (0.75 U/kg body wt). These are doses that are above the typical rate of insulin treatment in type 2 diabetics (0.5 U/kg) [
28]. Plasma glucose (Bayer Contour glucose meter), insulin (ELISA; Crystal Chem Inc.), and adiponectin (Crystal Chem Inc.) levels were determined. Studies were conducted in accordance with the principles and procedures outlined in the National Institutes of Health Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals and were approved by the IACUC (Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee) at Brigham Young University.
Lipid isolation analysis
Lipids were extracted and quantified as described previously [
29]. Briefly, lipids were isolated with chloroform–methanol (1:2), and after addition of water, the organic phase was collected and dried. After resuspension, lipids were quantified using a shotgun lipidomics technique on a Thermo Scientific LTQ Orbitrap XL mass spectrometer.
Protein analysis
Cell and tissue proteins were analyzed via western blot as described previously [
29].
Cell and myocardium permeabilization
For cells, H9c2 cardiomyocytes were detached in culture dishes with 0.05 % trypsin–EDTA (Sigma) and growth medium was added to the culture. Contents were transferred to a tube and centrifuged for 10 min at 1000×g at RT. After removal of supernatant, cells were lifted in MiR05 [0.5 mM EGTA, 3 mM MgCl2, 60 mM K-lactobionate, 20 mM taurine, 10 mM KH2PO4, 20 mM HEPES, 110 mM sucrose, and g/l BSA (Sigma; A3803) adjusted to pH 7.1] plus 1 mg/ml digitonin and gently rocked at RT for 5 min before centrifugation at 1000×g for 5 min. After discarding supernatant, cells were then suspended in 2.2 ml warm MiR05 and transferred to chambers in the O2K (Oroboros Instruments, Innsbruck, Austria). Following respiration protocol (outlined below), cells were removed from the chambers and used for protein quantification. For myocardial mitochondrial respiration, left ventricle was quickly removed from euthanized mice and immediately placed in ice-cold buffer X (60 mM K-MES, 35 mM KCl, 7.23 mM K2EGTA, 2.77 mM CaK2EGTA, 20 mM imidazole, 20 mM tuarine, 5.7 mM ATP, 15 mM PCr, 6.56 mM MgCl2–6H2O, pH 7.1) and trimmed of connective tissue. Small fiber bundles were prepared and gently separated along their longitudinal axis under a surgical scope (Olympus, ST) to 1–2 mg. Bundles were then transferred to a tube with chilled buffer X and 50 μg/ml saponin and rocked at 4 °C for 30 min, then washed in buffer Z (105 mM K-MES, 30 mM KCl, 10 mM KH2PO4, 5 mM MgCl2–6H2O, 0.5 mg/ml BSA, pH 7.1) at 4 °C for at least 15 min. Samples were then blotted dry and weighed.
Mitochondrial respiration protocol
High-resolution O2 consumption was determined at 37 °C in permeabilized cells and fiber bundles using the Oroboros O2 K Oxygraph with MiR05 respiration buffer. Before addition of sample into respiration chambers, a baseline respiration rate was determined. After addition of sample, the chambers were hyperoxygenated to ~300 nmol/ml. Following this, respiration was determined by all or parts of the following substrate-uncoupler-inhibitor-titration (SUIT) protocol: electron flow through complex I was supported by glutamate + malate (10 and 2 mM, respectively) to determine leak oxygen consumption (GM
L
). Following stabilization, ADP (2.5 mM) was added to determine oxidative phosphorylation capacity (GM
D
). Succinate was added (GMS
D
) for complex I + II electron flow into the Q-junction. To determine full electron transport system capacity in cells over oxidative phosphorylation, the chemical uncoupler carbonyl cyanide 4-(trifluoromethoxy) phenylhydrazone (FCCP) was added (0.05 μM, followed by 0.025 μM steps until maximal O2 flux was reached). Mitochondrial membrane integrity was tested in all experiments by adding cytochrome c (not shown; 10 μM). Lastly, residual oxygen consumption was measured by adding antimycin A (2.5 μM) to block complex III action, effectively stopping any electron flow, which provides a baseline rate of respiration.
Statistics
Data are presented as the mean ± SEM. Data were compared by ANOVA with Tukey’s post hoc analysis (Graphpad Prism; La Jolla, CA). Significance was set at p < 0.05.
Discussion
Type 2 diabetes carries an increased risk of developing a surprising and increasing number of pathologies. Multiples lines of evidence reveal its hand in diseases stemming from cognitive [
31], reproductive [
32], musculoskeletal [
33], and cardiovascular disorders [
34]. However, type 2 diabetes is typified by two key characteristics—hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinemia [
35,
36]—and while the disease has historically been defined by blood glucose levels, insulin may be a more sensitive and relevant diagnostic [
37]. Indeed, a very recent study found that higher insulin exposure in type 2 diabetics is associated with a threefold increase in cardiovascular events [
38]. Herein, we demonstrate that chronic insulin injections exert a time-specific and ceramide-dependent effect on cardiometabolic function, including insulin resistance and heart mitochondrial changes.
These studies provide additional insight into the etiology of type 2 diabetes-related heart complications. In particular, these results suggest that insulin is an important pathogenic mediator and highlight the need to regularly measure insulin when evaluating heart disease risk. Our findings of insulin impacting mitochondrial physiology are not new—Parra et al. [
39] found that insulin increased mitochondrial respiration. However, while we tended to see an overall dampening effect of insulin on mitochondrial respiration, a notable difference between our studies is the length of time; this previous report used a 3-h incubation, while we used several time points in our in vitro model. Indeed, our data corroborate those of Parra et al. [
39] when we analyzed mitochondrial respiration at 1 h, but not at periods over 6 h. Combined with our observations following a 4-week insulin treatment in mice, these data collectively suggest the clinical relevance of prolonged increases in insulin.
In mice, we found that prolonged insulin treatment resulted in reduced glucose and insulin tolerance, suggesting that insulin alone, independent of other variables, is capable of inducing insulin resistance. This observation corroborates evidence from several previous reports in humans and rodents wherein hyperinsulinemia from endogenous (e.g., insulinoma) [
40] and exogenous (e.g., injections) [
26,
41,
42] sources causes insulin resistance. This insulin-desensitizing effect of prolonged hyperinsulinemia is likely at least partially mediated via ceramide accrual [
26]. While it is possible that the insulin-resistant state caused by the insulin treatment in our study exerts some confounding effect on altering heart mitochondrial function independent of insulin-induced heart ceramide accrual, we nonetheless consider this an apparent feature of the prolonged hyperinsulinemia. Nevertheless, insulin resistance per se, in the absence of the often-accompanying hyperinsulinemia, may be the responsible lesion.
In light of the observations by Dohm and Pories [
17], who implicate hyperinsulinemia in the etiology of T2DM, we submit an alternative hypothesis as to the origins of diabetic heart disease that should be considered. As opposed to heart disease being a consequence of the potentially harmful milieu associated with T2DM, perhaps heart disease and T2DM are each consequences of one pathology—hyperinsulinemia. Such a theory is supported by multiple reports that implicate insulin alone in the etiology of both heart disease [
43‐
45] and T2DM [
46,
47]. Over two decades ago, Haffner et al. [
48] wondered about the role of insulin and queried whether heart disease started before diabetes onset, when insulin, but not glucose, is elevated. Their results add to the body of evidence that insulin is an important etiological factor in heart disease. A significant strength of measuring insulin is that it is elevated earlier than glucose in the progression to frank T2DM [
46,
47] allowing not only an earlier diagnosis, but also an earlier, and thus more effective, intervention. Collectively, these observations emphasize the need to measure insulin in routine health screenings.
Altogether, these results highlight the pathogenicity of hyperinsulinemia on cardiometabolic function, including insulin resistance and heart mitochondria. These findings are corroborated by recent work by Marciniak et al. [
49] who found reduced cardiac mitochondrial function in a mouse model of type 2 diabetes, with concomitant hyperinsulinemia. Interestingly, cardiac mitochondrial function was largely unaffected in the streptozotocin-induced model of type 1 diabetes, which strengthens the insulin-centric paradigm of altered cardiometabolic health with type 2 diabetes. Another finding from Marciniak et al. [
49] was that adiponectin was reduced in their model of type 2 diabetes, but not type 1, which is a common finding in humans [
35]. Considering the actions of adiponectin signaling on ceramide metabolism [
50] and cardiovascular function [
51], the reduced adiponectin that accompanies most insulin-resistant conditions may provide additional explanation into the increased heart ceramide accrual and reduced adiponectin we observed in our model of directly induced hyperinsulinemia [
52].
The purpose of these studies was to explore the effect of insulin in altering cardiometabolic function, with a focus on two main components: insulin resistance and heart mitochondrial dynamics and physiology. However, while our findings shed light on the role of insulin in cardiometabolic pathologies, they nevertheless fall short of allowing firm conclusions concerning cardiovascular health. Thus, a significant weakness that will need to be addressed in future studies is the lack of analyses to determine a functional impairment with the heart in this same context.