Comment on Kolwicz et al. Enhancing Cardiac Triacylglycerol Metabolism Improves Recovery From Ischemic Stress. Diabetes 2015;64:2817-2827.

Kolwicz et al. (1) presented an interesting and elegantly conducted study where they examined the role of diacylglycerol transferase 1 (DGAT1) overexpression in cardiac triacylglycerol turnover rates under ischemia-reperfusion conditions. Mice with myosin heavy-chain–mediated cardiac-specific overexpression of DGAT1 exhibited elevated triacylglycerol contents and ischemia-induced lipolysis. Furthermore, enhanced triacylglycerol turnover was associated with improved functional recovery during reperfusion. The authors concluded that elevated triacylglycerol content and turnover provide protection from ischemia-reperfusion injury in nondiabetic hearts. In the discussion of their results, …