NEWS AND VIEWS

28 October 2026

A cellular fuel called lactate is channelled directly into energy-generating organelles in heart muscle, defying the prevailing view about lactate transport.

By

Trace Thome Trace Thome is in the Cardiovascular Institute and the Department of Physiology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 19104, USA.

Zolt Arany Zolt Arany is in the Cardiovascular Institute and the Department of Physiology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 19104, USA.

Lactate is abundant in human blood and is crucial for systemic metabolism. Although it has been studied for centuries, there is still controversy about how this molecule is handled by cells. One long-standing debate is about the mechanism by which lactate-derived carbons make their way into mitochondria to fuel the production of energy-carrying ATP molecules. Writing in Nature , Cluntun et al.…