Regulation of mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation

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Skeletal muscle uses both fat and carbohydrates as energy sources during exercise and everyday living. Mitochondria are structures located within skeletal muscle that are responsible for harvesting the energy from fat and carbohydrate, allowing our muscles to contract. While the regulation of carbohydrate breakdown resulting in energy is well characterized, little is known about the regulation of fat breakdown. Scientists do know that specific proteins, called transport proteins, help get the fat inside the mitochondria where they are broken down to create energy. This transport into mitochondria, likely involving several transport proteins, appears to be key step in regulating the overall rate that skeletal muscle can breakdown fat. However the exact details of how fat gets into mitochondria, which proteins facilitate the transport of fat, and what regulates these transport proteins is currently not known.