Project description:Accumulation of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) deletions to detrimental levels in few cells and chronic inflammation are concomitant during aging in many tissues, thus raising the question of a causal link between both phenomena. To approach this, we generated mice which accumulate such deletions in the epidermis by expression of a mutant TWINKLE helicase in keratinocytes. These short-lived mice showed a severe depletion of mtDNA, as well as low amounts of large-scale deletions in the epidermis. These alterations led to an imbalanced stoichiometry of mitochondrial respiratory chain complexes, inducing a unique combination of cytokine expression in the epidermis. This caused a severe inflammatory phenotype, with massive immune cell infiltrates already before birth, resulting in serous scabs at the ventral skin region and limb joints. Altogether, these data suggest that severe respiratory chain dysfunction, as observed in a few cells in aged tissues, might be involved in the development of chronic inflammation.
Project description:The mitochondrial respiratory chain is composed of lipoprotein complexes imbedded in the inner mitochondrial membrane. This chain of enzymes transfers electrons from NADH and FADH2, provided from divers metabolic pathways, to oxygen. It couples the transfer of electrons to the translocation of protons across the membrane. Several clinical syndromes have been associated with respiratory dysfunction caused by mitochondrial or nuclear mutations. A number of mutations in the mitochondrial genes encoding for cytochrome b (CYTB) and cytochrome oxidase (COX 1, 2 and 3) have been linked with diseases. We are using yeast mutants to characterize the deleterious effect of mutations reported in patients on the assembly and catalytic properties of the affected enzymes, and to study the impact of mutations in nuclear genes, such as OXA1, encoding for factors required for the assembly of the respiratory complexes. In this work, we monitored the effects of the mutations causing respiratory defect on the whole genome expression. We compared the change in gene expression in rho0 cells (with a complete deletion of the mitochondrial genome, and by consequence without respiratory chain), in cells with either a single defective enzyme or several, and in cells after prolonged treatment with the bc1 inhibitors myxothiazol or antimycin. The impact of the mutations on the respiratory function ranged from mild to severe. The expression of approx. 350 genes was changed in at least one mutant. Cluster analysis was performed using the Cluster program (Eisen, 1998, PNAS 95:14863). Four groups of genes were studied in more details: Group A, the most repressed genes; Group B, the most over-expressed genes; Group C, genes more repressed in rho0 and Doxa1 cells; and Group D, genes more over-expressed in Doxa1.
Project description:Objective: To study if diabetic and insulin-resistant states lead to mitochondrial dysfunction in the liver, or alternatively, if there is adaption of mitochondrial function to these states in the long-term range. Results: High-fat diet (HFD) caused insulin resistance and severe hepatic lipid accumulation, but respiratory chain parameters were unchanged. Livers from insulin-resistant IR/IRS-1+/- mice had normal lipid contents and normal respiratory chain parameters, however showed mitochondrial uncoupling. Livers from severely hyperglycemic and hypoinsulimic, streptozotocin (STZ)-treated mice had massively depleted lipid levels, but respiratory chain abundance was unchanged. However, their mitochondria showed increased abundance and activity of the respiratory chain, which was better coupled compared to controls. Conclusions: Insulin resistance, either induced by obesity or by genetic manipulation, does not cause mitochondrial dysfunction in the liver of mice. However, severe insulin deficiency and high blood glucose levels in mice cause an enhanced performance of the respiratory chain, probably in order to maintain the high energy requirement of the unsuppressed gluconeogenesis. We performed gene expression microarray analysis on liver tissue derived from mice treated with STZ or standard diet (control).
Project description:Mitochondrial dysfunction induces a strong adaptive retrograde signaling response, however many of the down-stream effectors remain to be discovered. Here, we studied the shared transcriptional responses to three different mitochondrial respiratory chain inhibitors in human primary skin fibroblasts using QuantSeq 3’RNA-sequencing. We found that mevalonate pathway genes were concurrently downregulated irrespective of the respiratory chain complex affected. Targeted metabolomics demonstrated that impaired mitochondrial respiration at any of the three affected complexes also had functional consequences on the mevalonate pathway, reducing cholesterol precursor metabolites. A deeper study of complex I inhibition showed a reduced activity of ER-bound sterol sensing enzymes through impaired processing of the transcription factor SREBP2 and accelerated degradation of the ER cholesterol sensors SQLE and HMGCR. These adaptations of mevalonate pathway activity neither affected total intracellular cholesterol levels nor the cellular free (non-esterified) cholesterol pool. Measurement of intracellular cholesterol using the fluorescent cholesterol binding dye filipin revealed that complex I inhibition elevated cholesterol on intracellular compartments. Our study shows that mitochondrial respiratory chain dysfunction elevates intracellular free cholesterol levels and therefore attenuates the expression of mevalonate pathway enzymes, which lowers endogenous cholesterol biosynthesis, disrupting the metabolic output of the mevalonate pathway. Intracellular disturbances in cholesterol homeostasis may alter systemic cholesterol management in diseases associated with declining mitochondrial function.
Project description:Objective: To study if diabetic and insulin-resistant states lead to mitochondrial dysfunction in the liver, or alternatively, if there is adaption of mitochondrial function to these states in the long-term range. Results: High-fat diet (HFD) caused insulin resistance and severe hepatic lipid accumulation, but respiratory chain parameters were unchanged. Livers from insulin-resistant IR/IRS-1+/- mice had normal lipid contents and normal respiratory chain parameters, however showed mitochondrial uncoupling. Livers from severely hyperglycemic and hypoinsulimic, streptozotocin (STZ)-treated mice had massively depleted lipid levels, but respiratory chain abundance was unchanged. However, their mitochondria showed increased abundance and activity of the respiratory chain, which was better coupled compared to controls. Conclusions: Insulin resistance, either induced by obesity or by genetic manipulation, does not cause mitochondrial dysfunction in the liver of mice. However, severe insulin deficiency and high blood glucose levels in mice cause an enhanced performance of the respiratory chain, probably in order to maintain the high energy requirement of the unsuppressed gluconeogenesis.
Project description:Various organ failure induced by chronic intake of GeO2 is one of the well known disease related to mitochondrial dysfunction. The 0.15% GeO2 treated CBA mice shows severe hearing loss in 4M. Here we analyzed cochlear gene expression of 6 months old CBA mice using microarrays treated with normal chow or that containing 0.15% GeO2 for four months. Auditory brainstem response (ABR) analysis confirmed that severe age-related hearing loss occured in GeO2 treated mice, whereas no hearing loss occured in normal chow treated mice. Comprehensive gene expression analysis identified genes correlated with GeO2-induced mithochodrial dysfunction genes and revealed that 28 genes encoding components of the mitochondrial respiratory chain were significantly down-regulated. These observations provide evidence that GeO2-induced hearing loss is associated with the down-regulation of genes involved in the mitochondrial respiratory chain complexes in the cochlea of CBA mice.
Project description:Various organ failure induced by chronic intake of GeO2 is one of the well known disease related to mitochondrial dysfunction. The 0.15% GeO2 treated CBA mice shows severe hearing loss in 4M. Here we analyzed cochlear gene expression of 6 months old CBA mice using microarrays treated with normal chow or that containing 0.15% GeO2 for four months. Auditory brainstem response (ABR) analysis confirmed that severe age-related hearing loss occured in GeO2 treated mice, whereas no hearing loss occured in normal chow treated mice. Comprehensive gene expression analysis identified genes correlated with GeO2-induced mithochodrial dysfunction genes and revealed that 28 genes encoding components of the mitochondrial respiratory chain were significantly down-regulated. These observations provide evidence that GeO2-induced hearing loss is associated with the down-regulation of genes involved in the mitochondrial respiratory chain complexes in the cochlea of CBA mice. To determine the effects of GeO2, each control sample (n=5) was compared to each GeO2-intoxicated (n=5), generating a total of 25 pairwise comparisons. Using DAVIS and EASE, the identified genes were assign to GO: Biological Process categories of Gene Ontology Consortium. Furthermore, we used EASE to determine the total number of genes that were assigned to each biological process category, and to perform Fisher exact test. Quality control measures were not used. No replicates were done. Dye swap was not used.
Project description:Age-related hearing loss (AHL) is the progressive loss of auditory function with aging. The DBA/2J (DBA) mice have been used as a model of AHL and undergoes progressive, age-related hearing loss by 12 weeks of age. Here we analyzed cochlear gene expression of 7-week-old and 36-week-old DBA mice using microarrays. Auditory brainstem response (ABR) analysis confrimed that severe age-related hearing loss occured in 36-week-old mice, whereas moderate hearing loss occured in 7-week-old mice. Comprehensive gene expression analysis identified genes correlated with AHL and revealeed that 15 mitochondrial process categories, including â??mitochondrial electron transport chainâ??, â??oxidative phosphorylationâ??, â??respiratory chain complex Iâ??, â??respiratory chain complex IVâ??, and â??respiratory chain complex Vâ??, were statistically associated with AHL-correlated genes in the cochlea of 36-week-old DBA mice, and that 25 genes encoding components of the mitochondrial respiratory chain (respiratory chain complex I, IV, and V) were significantly down-regulated in the cochlea. These observations provide evidence that AHL is associated with down-regulation of genes involved in the mitochondrial respiratory chain in the cochlea of DBA mice, and suggest that mitochondrial respiratory chain dysfunction may be a key feature of AHL in mammalian cochlea. Experiment Overall Design: To determine the effects of age-related hearing loss, each 7-week-old sample (n = 3) was compared to each 36-week-old sample (n = 3), generating a total of nine pairwise comparisons. Using DAVIS and EASE, the identified genes were assign to â??GO: Biological Processâ?? categories of Gene Ontology Consortium. Furthermore, we used EASE to determine the total number of genes that were assigned to each biological process category, and to perform Fisher exact test. Quality control measures were not used. No replicates were done. Dye swap was not used.
Project description:The proteasome is the main proteolytic system for targeted protein degradation in the cell. Its function is fine-tuned according to cellular needs. Inhibition of the respiratory chain impairs proteasome activity, regulation of proteasome function by mitochondrial metabolism, however, is unknown. Here, we demonstrate that mitochondrial dysfunction reduces the assembly and activity of the 26S proteasome. Defects in respiratory chain caused metabolic reprogramming of the Krebs cycle and deficiency in the amino acid aspartate resulting in reduced 26S proteasome function. Aspartate supplementation fully restored assembly and activity of 26S proteasome complexes. This metabolic reprogramming involved sensing of aspartate via the mTORC1 pathway and the mTORC1-dependent transcriptional activation of defined proteasome assembly factors. Metabolic regulation of 26S function was confirmed in patient-derived skin fibroblasts with respiratory dysfunction containing a single mitochondrial mutation. Importantly, treatment of primary human lung fibroblasts with the respiratory chain inhibitor and anti-diabetic drug metformin similarly reduced assembly and activity of 26S proteasome complexes, which was fully reversible and rescued by supplementation of aspartate or pyruvate. Of note, reduced 26S activity conferred increased resistance towards the proteasome inhibitor Bortezomib, which was reversible upon pyruvate supplementation. Our study uncovers a fundamental novel mechanism of how mitochondrial metabolism adaptively adjusts protein degradation by the proteasome. It thus unravels unexpected consequences of defective mitochondrial metabolism in disease or drug-targeted mitochondrial reprogramming for proteasomal protein degradation in the cell. As metabolic inhibition of proteasome function can be alleviated by treatment with aspartate or pyruvate, our results also have therapeutic implications.
Project description:Age-related hearing loss (AHL) is the progressive loss of auditory function with aging. The DBA/2J (DBA) mice have been used as a model of AHL and undergoes progressive, age-related hearing loss by 12 weeks of age. Here we analyzed cochlear gene expression of 7-week-old and 36-week-old DBA mice using microarrays. Auditory brainstem response (ABR) analysis confrimed that severe age-related hearing loss occured in 36-week-old mice, whereas moderate hearing loss occured in 7-week-old mice. Comprehensive gene expression analysis identified genes correlated with AHL and revealeed that 15 mitochondrial process categories, including “mitochondrial electron transport chain”, “oxidative phosphorylation”, “respiratory chain complex I”, “respiratory chain complex IV”, and “respiratory chain complex V”, were statistically associated with AHL-correlated genes in the cochlea of 36-week-old DBA mice, and that 25 genes encoding components of the mitochondrial respiratory chain (respiratory chain complex I, IV, and V) were significantly down-regulated in the cochlea. These observations provide evidence that AHL is associated with down-regulation of genes involved in the mitochondrial respiratory chain in the cochlea of DBA mice, and suggest that mitochondrial respiratory chain dysfunction may be a key feature of AHL in mammalian cochlea. Keywords: Disease state analysis, Time course analysis