Protein quality control and metabolic homeostasis are integral to maintaining cardiac function during stress; however, little is known about if or how these systems interact. Here we demonstrate that C terminus of HSC70-interacting protein (CHIP), a regulator of protein quality control, influences the metabolic response to pressure overload by direct regulation of the catalytic α subunit of AMPK. Induction of cardiac pressure overload in Chip -/-mice resulted in robust hypertrophy and decreased cardiac function and energy generation stemming from a failure to activate AMPK. Mechanistically, CHIP promoted LKB1-mediated phosphorylation of AMPK, increased the specific activity of AMPK, and was necessary and sufficient for stress-dependent activation of AMPK. CHIP-dependent effects on AMPK activity were accompanied by conformational changes specific to the α subunit, both in vitro and in vivo, identifying AMPK as the first physiological substrate for CHIP chaperone activity and establishing a link between cardiac proteolytic and metabolic pathways.
IntroductionPathological cardiac hypertrophy (subsequently referred to as cardiac hypertrophy) is an adaptive response to increased afterload brought about by hypertension, decreased arterial compliance, and other cardiac stressors (1). During the development of cardiac hypertrophy, numerous cellular processes come into play, including protein synthesis and proteolysis to account for the structural changes that accompany hypertrophy, as well as changes in cardiac metabolism to cope with increased energy demands. Despite the well-known fact that protein turnover and metabolic changes accompany cardiac hypertrophy, surprisingly little is known about how stress-dependent protein quality control mechanisms and metabolic regulation are coordinated, if at all, in the heart. C terminus of HSC70-interacting protein (CHIP, also known as STUB1) is a 35-kDa cytosolic protein initially identified in a screen for proteins that interact with the mammalian chaperones HSC70, HSP70 (2), and HSP90 (3). CHIP is ubiquitously expressed in mammalian tissues but is expressed at highest levels in the adult heart (2). CHIP plays an important dual role as both a cochaperone and a ubiquitin ligase (2-5). More recently, however, an additional role for CHIP in protein quality control has been suggested. Evidence that CHIP can act as an autonomous chaperone, independent of its association with HSPs, has been reported (6). However, these observations were made with a nonphysiological substrate (luciferase), and, to date, verification of CHIP's chaperone activity and identification of a physiological substrate have not been made.Changes in cardiac metabolism, such as oxidative substrate preference, mitochondrial function, and biogenesis, play a key role in the adaptive response to cardiac stress (7). As cardiomyocyte hypertrophy progresses, energy demand increases and cellu-