Role of alpha-synuclein protein levels in mitochondrial morphology and cell survival in cell lines.

ABSTRACT: ?-Synuclein is highly associated with some neurodegeneration and malignancies. Overexpressing wild-type or mutant ?-synuclein promotes neuronal death by mitochondrial dysfunction, the underlying mechanisms of which remain poorly defined. It was recently reported that ?-synuclein expression could directly lead to mitochondrial fragmentation in vitro and in vivo, which may be due to ?-synuclein localization on mitochondria. Here, we applied a double staining method to demonstrate mitochondrial morphogenetic changes in cells overexpressed with ?-synuclein. We show that mitochondrial localization of ?-synuclein was increased following its overexpression in three distinct cell lines, including HeLa, SH-SY5Y, and PC12 cells, but no alteration in mitochondrial morphology was detected. However, ?-synuclein knockdown prevents MPP(+)-induced mitochondrial fragmentation in SH-SY5Y and PC12 cells. These data suggest that ?-synuclein protein levels hardly affect mitochondrial morphology in normal cell lines, but may have some influence on that under certain environmental conditions.

SUBMITTER: Zhu M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3338674 | biostudies-other | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other