Inhibition of aldose reductase activity stimulates starvation induced autophagy and clears aldehyde protein adducts

Autophagy is a dynamic recycling process that eliminates damaged proteins and cellular organelles to maintain cellular homeostasis. Aldose reductase (AR) catalyzes conversion of glucose to sorbitol. It also catalyzes the reduction of a broad array of saturated and unsaturated aldehydes. Recently we demonstrated that deletion of AR promotes pathological cardiac remodeling via excessive autophagy; however, the role of AR in starvation-induced autophagy has not been determined. To determine the role of AR in starvation-induced autophagy, WTC57/Bl6 mice were pretreated with the AR inhibitor sorbinil (0.2 g/L for 48 h) in drinking water, followed by 24 h fasting. We found that the sorbinil pretreatment in fed mice did not affect blood glucose levels, whereas, it decreased the blood glucose levels in fasting mice. In comparison with fed mice, the LC3II formation and LCII/LCI ratio were increased in the fasted mice hearts and sorbinil pretreatment further enhanced LC3II formation and LC3II/LC3I ratios in these hearts. Fasting-induced autophagy coincided with AMPK activation in the sorbinil pretreated fasted mice hearts. Autophagy and activation of AMPK was also induced in the gastrocnemius skeletal muscle of sorbinil pre-treated fasted mice. Induction of autophagy in the cardiac tissues of sorbinil pretreated fasted mice was accompanied by increased clearance of 4-hydroxytrans-2-nonenal-protein adducts. Taken together, these results indicate that the inhibition of AR during fasting activates autophagic response, increases clearance of aldehyde-protein adducts, which could serve as a mechanism to maintain cellular homeostasis during starvation.