Systematic analysis of lysine lactylation in nucleus pulposus cells.

Authors :: Sheng L
Xu H
Wang Y
Ni J
Xiang T
Xu H
Zhou X
Wei K
Dai J
Source :: IScience [iScience] 2024 Oct 11; Vol. 27 (11), pp. 111157. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Oct 11 (Print Publication: 2024).
Publication Year :: 2024
Abstract: Nucleus pulposus (NP) resides in hypoxic microenvironment and NP cells (NPCs), primarily reply on glycolysis and producing high levels of lactate. Intracellular lactate drives lysine lactylation (Kla) as a newly epigenetic modification. However, the impact of Kla on NPCs remains unknown. Here, single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data suggested an altered balance between glycolysis and aerobic oxidation in intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD). Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis displayed 3510 lactylation sites on 1052 non-histone proteins of NPCs isolated from rat cultured in normoxia and hypoxia. Moreover, there are 18 proteins with 129 Kla sites and 117 Kla sites in 27 proteins exclusively detected in normoxia and hypoxia group, respectively. Bioinformatics analysis displayed that these lactylated proteins are tightly related to ribosome, spliceosome and the VEGFA-VEGFA2 signaling pathway. Together, our study reveals that Kla may play an important role in regulating cellular metabolism of NPCs.<br />Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.<br /> (© 2024 The Author(s).)