Metabolic Profiling of Aortic Stenosis and Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Identifies Mechanistic Contrasts in Substrate Utilisation

Background Aortic stenosis (AS) and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) are highly distinct disorders leading to left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), but whether cardiac metabolism substantially differs between these in humans remains to be elucidated.

Method We undertook a detailed invasive (aortic root and coronary sinus) metabolic profiling in patients with severe AS and HCM in comparison to non-LVH controls, to investigate cardiac fuel selection and metabolic remodelling. These patients were assessed under different physiological states (at rest and during stress induced by pacing). The identified changes in the metabolome were further validated by metabolomic and orthogonal transcriptomic analysis, in separately recruited patient cohorts.

Results We identified a highly discriminant metabolomic signature in severe AS characterised by striking accumulation of long-chain acylcarnitines, intermediates of long-chain transport and fatty acid metabolism, and validated this in a separate cohort. Mechanistically, we identify a down-regulation in the PPAR-α transcriptional network, including expression of genes regulating FAO.

Conclusions We present a comprehensive analysis of changes in the metabolic pathways (transcriptome to metabolome) in severe AS, and its comparison to HCM. Our results demonstrate fundamental distinctions in substrate preference between AS and HCM, highlighting insufficient long-chain FAO, and the PPAR-α signalling network as a specific metabolic therapeutic target in AS.