Defective mitochondrial cardiolipin remodeling dampens HIF-1a expression in hypoxia

Mitochondria fulfill vital metabolic functions and act as crucial cellular signaling hubs integrating their metabolic status into the cellular context. Here, we show that defective cardiolipin-remodeling, upon loss of the cardiolipin acyl transferase Tafazzin, mutes HIF-1a signaling in hypoxia. Tafazzin-deficiency does not affect posttranslational HIF-1a regulation but rather HIF-1a gene-expression, a dysfunction recapitulated in iPSCs-derived cardiomyocytes from Barth Syndrome patients with Tafazzin-deficiency. RNAseq analyses confirmed drastically altered signaling in Tafazzin mutant cells. In hypoxia, Tafazzin-deficient cells display reduced production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) perturbing NF-kB activation and concomitantly HIF-1a gene-expression. In agreement, Tafazzin-deficient mice hearts display reduced HIF-1a levels and undergo maladaptive hypertrophy with heart failure in response to pressure overload challenge. We conclude that defective mitochondrial cardiolipin-remodeling dampens HIF-1a signaling through inactivation of a non-canonical signaling pathway: Lack of NF-kB activation through reduced mitochondrial ROS production diminishes HIF-1a transcription. Cells lacking tafazzin were subjected to hypoxia and compared to the ones at normoxia or isogenic WT cells either at hypoxia or nomoxia