Developmental, nutritional, and hormonal regulation of tissue-specific expression of the genes encoding various acyl-CoA dehydrogenases and alpha-subunit of electron transfer flavoprotein in rat.

Short chain (SCAD), medium chain (MCAD), and long chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenases (LCAD) catalyze the first step of fatty acid oxidation, while isovaleryl-CoA dehydrogenase (IVD) is involved in leucine oxidation. They are homologous flavoproteins belonging to the acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (ACD) family. Electron transfer flavoprotein (ETF) serves as an obligatory electron acceptor for these reactions. We demonstrated that the expression of SCAD, MCAD, and LCAD and the alpha-subunit of ETF (alpha-ETF) showed a similar developmental pattern, while that of IVD was distinctly different from others. The ontogenic pattern of each enzyme in the liver differed distinctly from that in the heart. The degree of glucagon-enhanced ACD expression in vivo and in vitro in both the liver and heart was especially high in fasted rats. Dexamethasone induced all ACD mRNAs in the heart. In contrast, it strongly suppressed mRNAs of all ACDs and alpha-ETF mRNA in the liver, except IVD mRNA. Dexamethasone induced IVD mRNA in both the liver and heart. Starvation strongly stimulated expression of all five genes in various tissues, with the highest in the heart, except the IVD gene which was down-regulated. The degree of induction by 3-day starvation differed in different age groups of rats. Feeding the rats a fat-free diet for 7 days caused a marked increase of IVD mRNA in the heart, whereas the high fat diet for the same period resulted in a severe decrease of the same degree, suggesting a protein-sparing mechanism. However, these manipulations of dietary fat content had little effect on the expression of other ACD genes.