Ablation of Akt2 rescues chronic caloric restriction-provoked myocardial remodeling and dysfunction through a CDK1-mediated regulation of mitophagy

Chronic caloric restriction triggers unfavorable alterations in cardiac function albeit responsible scenarios remain unclear. This work evaluated the possible involvement of Akt2 in caloric restriction-evoked cardiac geometric and functional changes and responsible processes focusing on autophagy and mitophagy. Akt2 knockout and WT mice were subjected to caloric restriction for 30 weeks prior to assessment of myocardial homeostasis. Caloric restriction compromised echocardiographic parameters (decreased LV wall thickness, LVEDD, stroke volume, cardiac output, ejection fraction, fractional shortening, and LV mass), cardiomyocyte contractile and intracellular Ca²⁺ capacity, myocardial atrophy, interstitial fibrosis and mitochondrial injury associated with elevated blood glucocorticoids, autophagy (LC3B, p62, Atg7, Beclin-1), and mitophagy (Pink1, Parkin, TOM20), dampened cardiac ATP levels, mitochondrial protein PGC1α and UCP2, anti-apoptotic protein Bcl2, intracellular Ca²⁺ governing components Na⁺-Ca²⁺ exchanger, phosphorylation of SERCA2a, mTOR (Ser²⁴⁸¹) and ULK1 (Ser⁷⁵⁷), and upregulated Bax, phospholamban, phosphorylation of Akt2, AMPK, and ULK1 (Ser⁵⁵⁵), the responses except autophagy markers (Beclin-1, Atg7), phosphorylation of AMPK, mTOR and ULK1 were negated by Akt2 ablation. Levels of CDK1 and DRP1 phosphorylation were overtly upregulated with caloric restriction, the response was reversed by Akt2 knockout. Caloric restriction-evoked changes in cardiac remodeling and cardiomyocyte function were alleviated by glucocorticoid receptor antagonism, Parkin ablation and Mdivi-1. In vitro experiment indicated that serum deprivation or glucocorticoids evoked GFP-LC3B accumulation and cardiomyocyte dysfunction, which was negated by inhibition of Akt2, CDK1 or DRP1, whereas mitophagy induction reversed Akt2 ablation-evoked cardioprotection. These observations favor a protective role of Akt2 ablation in sustained caloric restriction-evoked cardiac pathological changes via correction of glucocorticoid-induced mitophagy defect in a CDK1-DRP1-dependent manner.