Mitochondria are the center for oxidative phosphorylation, metabolism, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production in the cell and home for several proapoptotic proteins. Therefore, tight regulation of mitochondrial health and function is essential…
Immunofluorescence staining is a widely used and powerful tool for the visualization and colocalization of two or more proteins and/or cellular organelles. For colocalization studies in fixed cells, one target protein/organelle is immunostained and…
PURPOSE. Autophagy is a critical process, compromised in neurodegenerative disease, by which terminally differentiated cells like neurons manage cytoskeletal and organelle turnover. How autophagy relates to associated neurodegenerative pathologies…
Axons can be several orders of magnitude longer than neural somas, presenting logistical difficulties in cargo trafficking and structural maintenance. Keeping the axon compartment well supplied with energy also presents a considerable challenge; even…
Mitochondria-derived oxygen-free radical(s) are important mediators of oxidative cellular injury. It is widely hypothesized that excess NO enhances O(2)(center dot-) generated by mitochondria under certain pathological conditions. In the…
Extracting and concentrating mitochondrial protein complexes from gel strips after blue native PAGE (BN-PAGE) can be daunting tasks using the traditional methods, such as electroelution, passive diffusion and centrifugal concentration. We present a…
Metabolic dysfunction accompanies neurodegenerative disease and aging. An important step for therapeutic development is a more sophisticated understanding of the source of metabolic dysfunction, as well as to distinguish disease-associated changes…
The myocardium adapts to ischemic insults in a variety of ways. One adaptation is the phenomenon of acute preconditioning, which can greatly ameliorate ischemic damage. However, this effect wanes within a few hours and does not confer chronic…
HDL and apolipoprotein A1 (apoA1) concentrations inversely correlate with risk of death from ischemic heart disease; however, the role of apoA1 in the myocardial response to ischemia has not been well defined. To test whether apoA1, the primary HDL…
Aging is associated with the accumulation of various deleterious changes in cells. According to the free radical and mitochondrial theory of aging, mitochondria initiate most of the deleterious changes in aging and govern life span. The failure of…
PURPOSE: Decreased ATP correlates with intraocular pressure exposure in the optic nerves of mice with glaucoma. To understand what underlies this energy deficit, we examined mitochondria in the myelinated optic nerve axons of the DBA/2J mouse, a…
Mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) have emerged as an important mechanism of disease and redox signaling in the cardiovascular system. Under basal or pathological conditions, electron leakage for ROS production is primarily mediated by the…
OBJECTIVE: Our goal was to determine the mechanism by which mitochondrial oxidative stress impairs collateral growth in the heart. APPROACH AND RESULTS: Rats were treated with rotenone (mitochondrial complex I inhibitor that increases reactive oxygen…
OBJECTIVE: We have previously found abrogated ischemia-induced coronary collateral growth in Zucker obese fatty (ZOF) rats compared with Zucker lean (ZLN) rats. Because ZOF rats have structural abnormalities in their mitochondria suggesting…
Coronary collateral growth is a process involving coordination between growth factors expressed in response to ischemia and mechanical forces. Underlying this response is proliferation of vascular smooth muscle and endothelial cells, resulting in an…
KEY POINTS: Hyperammonaemia occurs in hepatic, cardiac and pulmonary diseases with increased muscle concentration of ammonia. We found that ammonia results in reduced skeletal muscle mitochondrial respiration, electron transport chain complex I…
During heightened cardiac work, O2 consumption by the heart benefits energy production via mitochondria. However, some electrons leak from the respiratory chain and yield superoxide, which is rapidly metabolized into H2O2 by SOD2. To understand the…
Complex I is a critical site of O(2)(*-) production and the major host of reactive protein thiols in mitochondria. In response to oxidative stress, complex I protein thiols at the 51- and 75-kDa subunits are reversibly
Several PPAR-gamma agonists containing a thiazolidinedione moiety (referred to as glitazones) have been proposed to be neuroprotective and appear to alter mitochondrial function. Recently, a search for mitochondrial proteins that bind pioglitazone…
A deficiency of mitochondrial glutathione reductase (or GR2) is capable of adversely affecting the reduction of GSSG and increasing mitochondrial oxidative stress. BCNU [1,3-bis (2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea] is an anticancer agent and known…
The mitochondrial electrochemical gradient (Deltap), which comprises the pH gradient (DeltapH) and the membrane potential (DeltaPsi), is crucial in controlling energy transduction. During myocardial ischemia and reperfusion (IR), mitochondrial…
Mitochondrial dysfunction in obesity and diabetes can be caused by excessive production of free radicals, which can damage mitochondrial DNA. Because mitochondrial DNA plays a key role in the production of ATP necessary for cardiac work, we…
