Mitochondrial Transaminase (GOT2) in growth and metabolism of C2C12 myoblasts: Muscle glutamate dehydrogenase and GOT2 in pre-weanling mice

Glutamate can be metabolized by reacting with oxaloacetate (OAA) catalyzed by the mitochondrial form of glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase, GOT2, generating α-ketoglutarate and aspartate. We investigated the effect of GOT2 knockout on C2C12 myoblast cell growth rates and utilization of glutamine and assessed GOT2-induced changes in cell metabolites during cell growth. Glutamate can also be metabolized by conversion to alpha-ketoglutarate catalyzed by glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH). GDH protein is barely if at all expressed in adult muscle raising the issue of the relevance of GDH in C2C12 cells. However, we found that GDH is expressed in 20-day-old, pre-weanling mice as well as in C2C12 myoblasts.