Cecilie Morland

Lactate Receptor Sites Link Neurotransmission, Neurovascular Coupling, and Brain Energy Metabolism

The G-protein-coupled lactate receptor, GPR81 (HCA1), is known to promote lipid storage in adipocytes by downregulating cAMP levels. Here, we show that GPR81 is also present in the mammalian brain, including regions of the cerebral neocortex and hippocampus, where it can be activated by physiological concentrations of lactate and by the specific GPR81 agonist 3,5-dihydroxybenzoate to reduce cAMP. Cerebral GPR81 is concentrated on the synaptic membranes of excitatory synapses, with a postsynaptic predominance. GPR81 is also enriched at the blood-brain-barrier: the GPR81 densities at endothelial cell membranes are about twice the GPR81 density at membranes of perivascular astrocytic processes, but about one-seventh of that on synaptic membranes. There is only a slight signal in perisynaptic processes of astrocytes. In synaptic spines, as well as in adipocytes, GPR81 immunoreactivity is located on subplasmalemmal vesicular organelles, suggesting trafficking of the protein to and from the plasma membrane. The results indicate roles of lactate in brain signaling, including a neuronal glucose and glycogen saving response to the supply of lactate. We propose that lactate, through activation of GPR81 receptors, can act as a volume transmitter that links neuronal activity, cerebral energy metabolism and energy substrate availability.

Functional and Anatomical Identification of a Vesicular Transporter Mediating Neuronal ATP Release

ATP is known to be coreleased with glutamate at certain central synapses. However, the nature of its release is controversial. Here, we demonstrate that ATP release from cultured rat hippocampal neurons is sensitive to RNAi-mediated knockdown of the recently identified vesicular nucleotide transporter (VNUT or SLC17A9). In the intact brain, light microscopy showed particularly strong VNUT immunoreactivity in the cerebellar cortex, the olfactory bulb, and the hippocampus. Using immunoelectron microscopy, we found VNUT immunoreactivity colocalized with synaptic vesicles in excitatory and inhibitory terminals in the hippocampal formation. Moreover, VNUT immunolabeling, unlike that of the vesicular glutamate transporter VGLUT1, was enriched in preterminal axons and present in postsynaptic dendritic spines. Immunoisolation of synaptic vesicles indicated presence of VNUT in a subset of VGLUT1-containing vesicles. Thus, we conclude that VNUT mediates transport of ATP into synaptic vesicles of hippocampal neurons, thereby conferring a purinergic phenotype to these cells.

Valproate is neuroprotective against malonate toxicity in rat striatum: an association with augmentation of high-affinity glutamate uptake.

The antiepileptic drug valproate (VPA) may be neuroprotective. We treated rats with VPA for 14 days (300 mg/kg twice daily) before intrastriatal injection of 1.5 μmol (1 M) of the succinate dehydrogenase inhibitor malonate. VPA-treated animals developed smaller lesions than control animals: 10 ± 2 mm3 versus 26 ± 8 mm3 (means ± SD; P = 10−4). Injection of NaCl that was equiosmolar with 1 M malonate caused lesions of only 1.2 ± 0.4 mm3 in control animals, whereas physiologic saline produced no lesion. VPA pretreatment reduced the malonate-induced extracellular accumulation of glutamate. This effect paralleled an increase in the striatal level of the glutamate transporter GLT, which augmented high-affinity glutamate uptake by 25%, as determined from the uptake of [3H] glutamate into striatal proteoliposomes. Malonate caused a 76% reduction in striatal adenosine triphosphate (ATP) content, but the glial, ATP-dependent formation of glutamine from radiolabeled glucose or glutamate was intact, indicating that glial ATP production supported uptake of glutamate. Striatal levels of HSP-70 and fos were reduced, and the levels of bcl-2 and phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinase remained unaffected, but histone acetylation was increased by VPA treatment. The results suggest that augmentation of glutamate uptake may contribute importantly to VPA-mediated neuroprotection in striatum.

Propionate increases neuronal histone acetylation, but is metabolized oxidatively by glia. Relevance for propionic acidemia

In propionic acidemia, propionate acts as a metabolic toxin in liver cells by accumulating in mitochondria as propionyl‐CoA and its derivative, methylcitrate, two tricarboxylic acid cycle inhibitors. Little is known about the cerebral metabolism of propionate, although clinical effects of propionic acidemia are largely neurological. We found that propionate was metabolized oxidatively by glia: [3‐14C]propionate injected into mouse striatum or cortex, gave a specific activity of glutamine that was 5–6 times that of glutamate, indicating metabolism in cells that express glutamine synthetase, i.e., glia. Further, cultured cerebellar astrocytes metabolized [3‐14C]propionate; cultured neurons did not. However, both cultured cerebellar neurons and astrocytes took up [3H]propionate, and propionate exposure increased histone acetylation in cultured neurons and astrocytes as well as in hippocampal CA3 pyramidal neurons of wake mice. The inability of neurons to metabolize propionate may be due to lack of mitochondrial propionyl‐CoA synthetase activity or transport of propionyl residues into mitochondria, as cultured neurons expressed propionyl‐CoA carboxylase, a mitochondrial matrix enzyme, and oxidized isoleucine, which becomes converted into propionyl‐CoA intramitochondrially. The glial metabolism of propionate suggests astrocytic vulnerability in propionic acidemia when intramitochondrial propionyl‐CoA may accumulate. Propionic acidemia may alter both neuronal and glial gene expression by affecting histone acetylation.

The lactate receptor, G‐protein‐coupled receptor 81/hydroxycarboxylic acid receptor 1: Expression and action in brain

We have proposed that lactate is a “volume transmitter” in the brain and underpinned this by showing that the lactate receptor, G‐protein‐coupled receptor 81 (GPR81, also known as HCA1 or HCAR1), which promotes lipid storage in adipocytes, is also active in the mammalian brain. This includes the cerebral neocortex and the hippocampus, where it can be stimulated by physiological concentrations of lactate and by the HCAR1 agonist 3,5‐dihydroxybenzoate to reduce cAMP levels. Cerebral HCAR1 is concentrated on the postsynaptic membranes of excitatory synapses and also is enriched at the blood–brain barrier. In synaptic spines and in adipocytes, HCAR1 immunoreactivity is also located on subplasmalemmal vesicular organelles, suggesting trafficking to and from the plasma membrane. Through activation of HCAR1, lactate can act as a volume transmitter that links neuronal activity, cerebral blood flow, energy metabolism, and energy substrate availability, including a glucose‐ and glycogen‐saving response. HCAR1 may contribute to optimizing the cAMP concentration. For instance, in the prefrontal cortex, excessively high cAMP levels are implicated in impaired cognition in old age, fatigue, stress, and schizophrenia and in the deposition of phosphorylated tau protein in Alzheimers disease. HCAR1 could serve to ameliorate these conditions and might also act through downstream mechanisms other than cAMP. Lactate exits cells through monocarboxylate transporters in an equilibrating manner and through astrocyte anion channels activated by depolarization. In addition to locally produced lactate, lactate produced by exercising muscle as well as exogenous HCAR1 agonists, e.g., from fruits and berries, might activate the receptor on cerebral blood vessels and brain cells.

Evidence for a higher glycolytic than oxidative metabolic activity in white matter of rat brain

Different values exist for glucose metabolism in white matter; it appears higher when measured as accumulation of 2-deoxyglucose than when measured as formation of glutamate from isotopically labeled glucose, possibly because the two methods reflect glycolytic and tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle activities, respectively. We compared glycolytic and TCA cycle activity in rat white structures (corpus callosum, fimbria, and optic nerve) to activities in parietal cortex, which has a tight glycolytic-oxidative coupling. White structures had an uptake of [(3)H]2-deoxyglucose in vivo and activities of hexokinase, glucose-6-phosphate isomerase, and lactate dehydrogenase that were 40-50% of values in parietal cortex. In contrast, formation of aspartate from [U-(14)C]glucose in awake rats (which reflects the passage of (14)C through the whole TCA cycle) and activities of pyruvate dehydrogenase, citrate synthase, alpha-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase, and fumarase in white structures were 10-23% of cortical values, optic nerve showing the lowest values. The data suggest a higher glycolytic than oxidative metabolism in white matter, possibly leading to surplus formation of pyruvate or lactate. Phosphoglucomutase activity, which interconverts glucose-6-phosphate and glucose-1-phosphate, was similar in white structures and parietal cortex ( approximately 3 nmol/mg tissue/min), in spite of the lower glucose uptake in the former, suggesting that a larger fraction of glucose is converted into glucose-1-phosphate in white than in gray matter. However, the white matter glycogen synthase level was only 20-40% of that in cortex, suggesting that not all glucose-1-phosphate is destined for glycogen formation.

Vesicular uptake and exocytosis of l-aspartate is independent of sialin

The mechanism of release and the role of l‐aspartate as a central neurotransmitter are controversial. A vesicular release mechanism for l‐aspartate has been difficult to prove, as no vesicular l‐aspartate transporter was identified until it was found that sialin could transport l‐aspartate and l‐glutamate when reconstituted into liposomes. We sought to clarify the release mechanism of l‐aspartate and the role of sialin in this process by combining l‐aspartate uptake studies in isolated synaptic vesicles with immunocyotchemical investigations of hippocampal slices. We found that radiolabeled l‐aspartate was taken up into synaptic vesicles. The vesicular l‐aspartate uptake, relative to the l‐glutamate uptake, was twice as high in the hippocampus as in the whole brain, the striatum, and the entorhinal and frontal cortices and was not inhibited by l‐glutamate. We further show that sialin is not essential for exocytosis of l‐aspartate, as there was no difference in ATP‐dependent l‐aspartate uptake in synaptic vesicles from sialin‐knockout and wild‐type mice. In addition, expression of sialin in PC12 cells did not result in significant vesicle uptake of l‐aspartate, and depolarization‐induced depletion of l‐aspartate from hippocampal nerve terminals was similar in hippocampal slices from sialin‐knockout and wild‐type mice. Further, there was no evidence for nonvesicular release of l‐aspartate via volume‐regulated anion channels or plasma membrane excitatory amino acid transporters. This suggests that l‐aspartate is exocytotically released from nerve terminals after vesicular accumulation by a transporter other than sialin.—Morland, C., Nordengen, K., Larsson, M., Prolo, L. M., Farzampour, Z., Reimer, R. J., Gundersen, V. Vesicular uptake and exocytosis of L‐aspartate is independent of sialin. FASEB J. 27, 1264–1274 (2013). www.fasebj.org

Exercise induces cerebral VEGF and angiogenesis via the lactate receptor HCAR1

Physical exercise can improve brain function and delay neurodegeneration; however, the initial signal from muscle to brain is unknown. Here we show that the lactate receptor (HCAR1) is highly enriched in pial fibroblast-like cells that line the vessels supplying blood to the brain, and in pericyte-like cells along intracerebral microvessels. Activation of HCAR1 enhances cerebral vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA) and cerebral angiogenesis. High-intensity interval exercise (5 days weekly for 7 weeks), as well as L-lactate subcutaneous injection that leads to an increase in blood lactate levels similar to exercise, increases brain VEGFA protein and capillary density in wild-type mice, but not in knockout mice lacking HCAR1. In contrast, skeletal muscle shows no vascular HCAR1 expression and no HCAR1-dependent change in vascularization induced by exercise or lactate. Thus, we demonstrate that a substance released by exercising skeletal muscle induces supportive effects in brain through an identified receptor.

Pre- and postsynaptic localization of NMDA receptor subunits at hippocampal mossy fibre synapses

The N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) type of glutamate receptors is involved in synaptic plasticity in hippocampal mossy fibre-CA3 pyramidal neuron synapses. The ultrastructural localization of NMDA receptor subunits at this synapse type is not known. By postembedding electron microscopic immunogold cytochemistry we show that the NMDA receptor subunits GluN1, GluN2A, GluN2B, GluN2C and GluN2D are located in postsynaptic membranes of mossy fibre as well as CA3 recurrent associational commissural synapses. In the mossy fibres the GluN1, GluN2B and GluN2D labelling patterns suggested that these subunits were located also presynaptically in nerve terminal membranes and in mossy fibre axons. GluN3B was predominantly present in mossy fibre synapses as compared to recurrent associational commissural synapses, showing a presynaptic labelling pattern. In conclusion, while the postsynaptic localization of GluN1, GluN2A, GluN2B, and GluN2D is in good agreement with the recent finding of NMDA receptor-dependent long term potentiation (LTP) at CA3 mossy fibre synapses, we propose that presynaptic GluN1, GluN2B, GluN2D and GluN3B subunits could be involved in plastic phenomena such as certain types of LTP and recurrent mossy fibre growth.

Valproate causes reduction of the excitatory amino acid aspartate in nerve terminals

Valproate is well established in the treatment of epilepsy and psychiatric disorders, yet the main mechanism of action remains to be determined. Here we show that valproate may reduce neurotransmission of the excitatory amino acid, aspartate. By electron microscopic immunogold cytochemistry we demonstrate a 63-68% reduction in the level of aspartate in excitatory nerve terminals at 30 min after an acute dose of valproate. The level of glutamate in the same terminals was unchanged by valproate treatment. In inhibitory terminals, valproate caused a 65% decrease in the aspartate level, whereas the GABA level was not significantly changed. In summary, the present study shows that valproate reduces the nerve terminal content of the excitatory neurotransmitter aspartate. This points to a new mechanism of action for valproate: reduced neuronal excitation through reduced aspartergic neurotransmission.