Ketones can become the major fuel source for the heart but do not increase cardiac efficiency

摘要

Aims Ketones have been proposed to be a 'thrifty' fuel for the heart and increasing cardiac ketone oxidation can be cardioprotective. However, it is unclear how much ketone oxidation can contribute to energy production in the heart, nor whether increasing ketone oxidation increases cardiac efficiency. Therefore, our goal was to determine to what extent high levels of the ketone body, beta-hydroxybutyrate (beta OHB), contributes to cardiac energy production, and whether this influences cardiac efficiency.