2023-05-29 10:00:00
The heart muscle is mainly made up of cells called cardiomyocytes. At the start of their development, they mainly burn glucose and lactic acid, sources of energy that are easily accessible in the environment of the embryo. However, once mature, they burn fatty acids, which are stored in fatty tissue.
The mechanism surrounding this change in energy sources remains mysterious. Researchers from the National Center for Cardiovascular Research in Madrid (Spain) have just made a discovery on this subject.
Heart: gamma-linolenic acid, the key to change?
To understand the steps leading to the change of energy source in cardiac muscle cells, the Spanish researchers worked with mice. They discovered that the molecule called gamma-linolenic acid (or GLA), present in the breast milk of mice and humans, played a crucial role in this transformation.
According to their study published in the journal Nature on May 24, 2023, the molecule binds to retinoid X receptors present in cardiomyocytes. This action causes the heart muscle cells of the mouse pups to switch to the other source of energy, fatty acids. This change occurs within the first 24 hours of birth, the study authors found.
Breast milk, a major driver of physiology
This discovery might lead to a better understanding of how the heart develops in newborns. The lead author of the research, Mercedes Ricote, explains in her study “Our results reinforce the emerging idea that mother-infant interactions in early life are major drivers of body physiology and underscore the importance of breast milk for mitochondrial maturation of perinatal hearts, a finding with important implications. major implications for heart health”.
In the state of the scientific data currently collected, the scientist and her team recognize in a communiqué that they “cannot generalize their discovery to humans“. However, other scientists “will be able to use this knowledge to go further” in the study of the functioning of the heart and the treatment of cardiac pathologies.
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