In this review, we examine cardiovascular metabolism from three different, but highly complementary, perspectives. First, from the abstract perspective of a metabolite network, composed of nodes and links. We present fundamental concepts in network theory, including emergence, to illustrate how nature has designed metabolism with a hierarchal modular scale-free topology to provide a robust system of energy delivery. Second, from the physical perspective of a modular spatially compartmentalized network. We review evidence that cardiovascular metabolism is functionally compartmentalized, such that oxidative phosphorylation, glycolysis, and glycogenolysis preferentially channel ATP to ATPases in different cellular compartments, using creatine kinase and adenylate kinase to maximize efficient energy delivery. Third, from the dynamics perspective, as a network of dynamically interactive metabolic modules capable of self-oscillation. Whereas normally, cardiac metabolism exists in a regime in which excitation-metabolism coupling closely matches energy supply and demand, we describe how under stressful conditions, the network can be pushed into a qualitatively new dynamic regime, manifested as cell-wide oscillations in ATP levels, in which the coordination between energy supply and demand is lost. We speculate how this state of "metabolic fibrillation" leads to cell death if not corrected and discuss the implications for cardioprotection.-Weiss, J. N., L. Yang, and Z. Qu. Network perspectives of cardiovascular metabolism. J. Lipid Res. 2006Res. . 47: 2355Res. -2366.
Supplementary key words mitochondriaMuscle cells must adapt rapidly to a much wider range of energy demands than most noncontractile cells. For example, the rate of respiration by cardiac muscle increases by a factor of 15-20 between unloaded and maximal workload conditions (1). This requires a very robust metabolic network that can deliver smooth performance over a wide range of parameters. Although we do not yet fully understand how this is accomplished, new systems biology approaches, complemented by network theory and computer modeling studies, are at the threshold of providing new insights.Cardiovascular metabolism can be viewed as a network of interlinked energy-produced pathways (e.g., oxidative phosphorylation, glycolysis, and glycogenolysis), energyconsuming pathways [e.g., myofilament, sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR), and sarcolemma (SL) ATPases], and energydistributing pathways [e.g., creatine kinase (CK) and adenylate kinase (AK)] (Fig. 1A). In this review, we begin by considering metabolism from a highly abstract perspective, as a metabolite network in which substrates/products are represented as nodes and metabolic enzymes are represented as the links between nodes. We present some fundamental concepts in network theory, including the concept of emergence, and discuss how through Darwinian evolution metabolic networks are likely to have evolved a scale-free hierarchal modular topology that ensures the robustness of this most fundamental ...