Mitochondria and cell death

2000 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 170-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. P. Halestrap ◽  
E. Doran ◽  
J. P. Gillespie ◽  
A. O'Toole

Mitochondria play a central role in both apoptosis and necrosis through the opening of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (MPTP). This is thought to be formed through a Ca2+-triggered conformational change of the adenine nucleotide translocase (ANT) bound to matrix cyclophilin-D and we have now demonstrated this directly by reconstitution of the pure components. Opening of the MPTP causes swelling and uncoupling of mitochondria which, unrestrained, leads to necrosis. In ischaemia/reperfusion injury of the heart we have shown MPTP opening directly. Recovery of hearts correlates with subsequent closure, and agents that prevent opening or enhance closure protect from injury. Transient MPTP opening may also be involved in apoptosis by initially causing swelling and rupture of the outer membrane to release cytochrome c (cyt c), which then activates the caspase cascade and sets apoptosis in motion. Subsequent MPTP closure allows ATP levels to be maintained, ensuring that cell death remains apoptotic rather than necrotic. Apoptosis in the hippocampus that occurs after a hypoglycaemic or ischaemic insult is triggered by this means. Other apoptotic stimuli such as cytokines or removal of growth factors also involve mitochondrial cyt c release, but here there is controversy over whether the MPTP is involved. In many cases cyt c release is seen without any mitochondrial depolarization, suggesting that the MPTP does not open. Recent data of our own and others have revealed a specific outer-membrane cyt c-release pathway involving porin that does not release other intermembrane proteins such as adenylate kinase. This is opened by pro-apototic members of the Bcl-2 family such as BAX and prevented by anti-apoptotic members such as Bcl-xL. Our own data suggest that this pathway may interact directly with the ANT in the inner membrane at contact sites.

1999 ◽  
Vol 147 (7) ◽  
pp. 1493-1502 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel K.A. Bauer ◽  
Alexis Schubert ◽  
Oliver Rocks ◽  
Stefan Grimm

Here, we describe the isolation of adenine nucleotide translocase-1 (ANT-1) in a screen for dominant, apoptosis-inducing genes. ANT-1 is a component of the mitochondrial permeability transition complex, a protein aggregate connecting the inner with the outer mitochondrial membrane that has recently been implicated in apoptosis. ANT-1 expression led to all features of apoptosis, such as phenotypic alterations, collapse of the mitochondrial membrane potential, cytochrome c release, caspase activation, and DNA degradation. Both point mutations that impair ANT-1 in its known activity to transport ADP and ATP as well as the NH2-terminal half of the protein could still induce apoptosis. Interestingly, ANT-2, a highly homologous protein could not lead to cell death, demonstrating the specificity of the signal for apoptosis induction. In contrast to Bax, a proapoptotic Bcl-2 gene, ANT-1 was unable to elicit a form of cell death in yeast. This and the observed repression of apoptosis by the ANT-1–interacting protein cyclophilin D suggest that the suicidal effect of ANT-1 is mediated by specific protein–protein interactions within the permeability transition pore.


Circulation ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 116 (suppl_16) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinkun Xi ◽  
Huihua Wang ◽  
Guillaume Chanoit ◽  
Guang Cheng ◽  
Robert A Mueller ◽  
...  

Although resveratrol has been demonstrated to be cardioprotective, the detailed cellular and molecular mechanisms that mediate the protection remain elusive. We aimed to determine if resveratrol protects the heart at reperfusion by modulating the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP) opening through glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK-3β). Resveratrol (10μM) given at reperfusion reduced infarct size (12.2 ± 2.5 % of risk zone vs. 37.9 ± 3.1 % of risk zone in control, n = 6) in isolated rat hearts subjected to 30 min regional ischemia followed by 2 h of reperfusion, an effect that was abrogated by the mPTP opener atractyloside (30.9 ± 8.1 % of risk zone), implying that resveratrol may protect the heart at reperfusion by modulating the mPTP opening. To define the signaling mechanism underlying the action of resveratrol, we determined GSK-3β activity by measuring its phosphorylation at Ser 9 . Resveratrol significantly enhanced GSK-3β phosphorylation upon reperfusion (225.2 ± 30.0 % of control at 5 min of reperfusion). Further experiments showed that resveratrol induces translocation of GSK-3β to mitochondria and translocated GSK-3β interacts with the mPTP component cyclophilin D but not VDAC (the voltage-dependent anion channel) or ANT (the adenine nucleotide translocator) in cardiac mitochondria. Taken together, these data suggest that resveratrol prevents myocardial reperfusion injury by targeting the mPTP opening via GSK-3β. Translocation of GSK-3β to mitochondria and its interaction with the mPTP component cyclophilin D may serve as an essential mechanism that mediates the protective effect of resveratrol on reperfusion injury.


2014 ◽  
Vol 115 (suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Bernal-Ramírez ◽  
Adriana Riojas-Hernández ◽  
Flor E Morales-Marroquín ◽  
Elvía M Domínguez-Barragán ◽  
David Rodríguez-Mier ◽  
...  

Several mechanisms have been implicated in heart failure (HF) development due to obesity, including altered Ca2+ homeostasis and mitochondrial increased reactive oxygen species (ROS). Besides their metabolic role, mitochondria are important cell death regulators, since their disruption induces apoptosis. The mitochondrial permeability transition pore (MPTP) formation is key in this process. Ca2+ and ROS are known inducers of MPTP, and mitochondria are the main ROS generators. However, it has not been demonstrated that MPTP formation is involved in cardiac cell death due to obesity. Therefore, the aim of this work was to determine whether Ca2+ alterations and/or MPTP opening underlie cardiac dysfunction. We used obese Zucker fa/fa rats (32 weeks old), displaying concentric hypertrophy and cardiac dysfunction. We measured: i) Systolic and diastolic Ca2+ signaling in isolated myocytes, in basal conditions and upon β-adrenergic stimulation (β-AS), and ii) in vitro mitochondrial function: respiration, ROS production and MPTP opening. We found that the main alteration in Ca2+ signaling in fa/fa myocytes was a decrease in SERCA Ca2+ removal capacity, since Ca2+ transient amplitude and spark frequency were unchanged. Furthermore, in fa/fa myocytes, β-AS response was preserved. On the other hand, fa/fa mitochondria respiration, in state 3 decreased, but was unchanged in state 4, when glutamate/malate were used as substrate, resulting in an small decrease in respiratory control. In addition, fa/fa mitochondria were more sensitive to MPTP opening, induced by Ca2+ and carboxyatractiloside (CAT). Moreover, fa/fa mitochondria showed increased H2O2 production, and in exposed thiol groups in the adenine nucleotide translocase, a regulatory MPTP component. Since Ca2+ signaling is relatively normal in fa/fa cells, it does not seem to be the main contributor to the cardiac contractile dysfunction. However, given that fa/fa mitochondria showed decrease respiratory performance, were more susceptible to MPTP opening, and showed enhanced H2O2 production. We conclude that fa/fa mitochondria were more vulnerable to enhanced oxidative stress, causing MPTP opening, which could be exacerbated by SERCA slower Ca2+ removal capacity, leading to myocyte apoptosis.


2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (6) ◽  
pp. 1161-1174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rimpy Dhingra ◽  
Matthew Guberman ◽  
Inna Rabinovich-Nikitin ◽  
Jonathon Gerstein ◽  
Victoria Margulets ◽  
...  

Abstract Aims The chemotherapy drug doxorubicin (Dox) is commonly used for treating a variety of human cancers; however, it is highly cardiotoxic and induces heart failure. We previously reported that the Bcl-2 mitochondrial death protein Bcl-2/19kDa interaction protein 3 (Bnip3), is critical for provoking mitochondrial perturbations and necrotic cell death in response to Dox; however, the underlying mechanisms had not been elucidated. Herein, we investigated mechanism that drives Bnip3 gene activation and downstream effectors of Bnip3-mediated mitochondrial perturbations and cell death in cardiac myocytes treated with Dox. Methods and results Nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) signalling, which transcriptionally silences Bnip3 activation under basal states in cardiac myocytes was dramatically reduced following Dox treatment. This was accompanied by Bnip3 gene activation, mitochondrial injury including calcium influx, permeability transition pore (mPTP) opening, loss of nuclear high mobility group protein 1, reactive oxygen species production, and cell death. Interestingly, impaired NF-κB signalling in cells treated with Dox was accompanied by protein complexes between Bnip3 and cyclophilin D (CypD). Notably, Bnip3-mediated mPTP opening was suppressed by inhibition of CypD—demonstrating that CypD functionally operates downstream of Bnip3. Moreover, restoring IKKβ–NF-κB activity in cardiac myocytes treated with Dox suppressed Bnip3 expression, mitochondrial perturbations, and necrotic cell death. Conclusions The findings of the present study reveal a novel signalling pathway that functionally couples NF-κB and Dox cardiomyopathy to a mechanism that is mutually dependent upon and obligatorily linked to the transcriptional control of Bnip3. Our findings further demonstrate that mitochondrial injury and necrotic cell death induced by Bnip3 is contingent upon CypD. Hence, maintaining NF-κB signalling may prove beneficial in reducing mitochondrial dysfunction and heart failure in cancer patients undergoing Dox chemotherapy.


2019 ◽  
Vol 294 (28) ◽  
pp. 10807-10818 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Hurst ◽  
Ariele Baggett ◽  
Gyorgy Csordas ◽  
Shey-Shing Sheu

The mitochondrial matrix ATPase associated with diverse cellular activities (m-AAA) protease spastic paraplegia 7 (SPG7) has been recently implicated as either a negative or positive regulatory component of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP) by two research groups. To address this controversy, we investigated possible mechanisms that explain the discrepancies between these two studies. We found that loss of the SPG7 gene increased resistance to Ca2+-induced mPTP opening. However, this occurs independently of cyclophilin D (cyclosporine A insensitive) rather it is through decreased mitochondrial Ca2+ concentrations and subsequent adaptations mediated by impaired formation of functional mitochondrial Ca2+ uniporter complexes. We found that SPG7 directs the m-AAA complex to favor association with the mitochondrial Ca2+ uniporter (MCU) and MCU processing regulates higher order MCU-complex formation. The results suggest that SPG7 does not constitute a core component of the mPTP but can modulate mPTP through regulation of the basal mitochondrial Ca2+ concentration.


2006 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 33-36
Author(s):  
Meredith F. Ross ◽  
Michael P. Murphy

The MPT (mitochondrial permeability transition) occurs when a protein pore opens in the mitochondrial inner membrane in response to calcium overloading, adenine nucleotide depletion and oxidative stress, causing the disruption of mitochondrial function. For a number of years, this intriguing phenomenon was thought to be an in vitro curiosity of uncertain relevance to mitochondrial function within cells and tissues. However, this view was fundamentally altered with the help of three papers published in the Biochemical Journal in the 1980s and 1990s. Together, these studies demonstrated that CsA (cyclosporin A) selectively blocked induction of the MPT, that the mitochondrial matrix protein cyclophilin D was required for induction of the MPT, and that the MPT contributed to tissue damage during IR (ischaemia–reperfusion) injury.


2011 ◽  
Vol 109 (suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiffany T Nguyen ◽  
Mark V Stevens ◽  
Mark J Kohr ◽  
Charles Steenbergen ◽  
Michael N Sack ◽  
...  

S-nitrosylation (SNO), a reversible, redox-dependent post-translational modification, has emerged as an important mechanism for dynamic regulation of many proteins. Our previous studies have shown that protein S-nitrosylation (SNO) plays a protective role in myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (IR) injury. The primary mediator of cell death in I/R injury is activation of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP). Using a proteomic approach, we have previously found that cyclophilin D (CypD), a critical mPTP regulator, can be SNO on cysteine 203 (C203). To investigate whether SNO of CypD might attenuate mPTP activation, we mutated cysteine 203 of CypD, to a serine residue (C203S) and determined its effects on mPTP opening by assessing H 2 O 2 -induced mPTP opening using the calcein AM-cobalt chloride quenching method. Treatment of CypD -/- mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) with H 2 O 2 resulted loss in an ≈50 % loss of mPTP opening as compared to WT MEFs (n=5, p<0.05), consistent with the protective role of CypD in mPTP activation. Addition of a nitric oxide donor, GSNO, to CypD -/- MEFs did not further reduce mPTP opening; however, WT MEFs treated GSNO attenuated mPTP opening by half. To elucidate the role of SNO of C203 on CypD, we infected CypD -/- MEFs with a C203S-CypD vector. C203S-CypD re-constituted MEFs were also resistant to mPTP opening in the presence or absence of GSNO. This suggests that C203 is required for mPTP activation. To determine whether in vivo expression of C203S-CypD would alter mPTP opening, we generated adenovirus vectors encoding WT CypD or mutated C203S-CypD and injected these viral particles into CypD -/- mice via tail-vein. Mitochondria isolated from livers of CypD -/- mice or mice expressing C203S-CypD were resistant to Ca 2+ -induced swelling as compared to WT CypD reconstituted mice. In summary, our results indicate that C203 of CypD is required for mPTP opening and for the first time shows that SNO of C203 on CypD acts to attenuate mPTP activation.


2012 ◽  
Vol 111 (suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra M Machikas ◽  
James C Hunter ◽  
Veronica Lopez ◽  
Donna H Korzick

Background: Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death in older post-menopausal women. Ischemia/Reperfusion (I/R) injury triggers mitochondrial calcium (Ca 2+ ) overload inducing mitochondrial permeability transition pore (MPTP) opening, mitochondrial dysfunction, and cell death potentially by necrosis, apoptosis, and/or autophagy. Purpose: We sought to determine if age-associated estrogen deficiency increases mitochondrial Ca 2+ sensitivity, providing a possible mechanism for increased vulnerability to I/R injury in older women. Methods: Mitochondrial respiration (MR) was assessed in isolated mitochondria from ventricles of adult (6 mo; n=15) and aged (24 mo; n=18) ovary-intact or ovariectomized (OVX) female F344 rats. MR at complexes I and II was compared in the absence (State 2) and presence (State 3) of ADP to calculate respiratory control index (RCI; state3/state 2). Reduced RCI following Ca 2+ addition was used to assess Ca 2+ sensitivity, while mitochondrial Ca 2+ retention capacity was measured to quantify MPTP opening (CRC; n=4-5/group) prior to and following coronary artery ligation (55 min I and 6 hr R). Apoptosis was examined using DNA laddering and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL). Markers of autophagy were evaluated by western blotting and mitochondrial morphology through electron microscopy (EM). Results: Significant age-dependent decreases in RCI for complex I (12%) and complex II (8%) were observed in the absence of Ca 2+ , and correlated with increased necrosis in aged hearts revealed by triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) staining (p < 0.05). Ca 2+ exposure decreased MR (18-30%; p < 0.05) in Complex I of aged and OVX mitochondria vs adults. Furthermore, CRC worsened with age requiring less Ca 2+ to open the MPTP. Reduced DNA laddering and TUNEL staining combined with increased beclin-1 and cathepsinD expression in aged vs. adult further support a dominant role for necrosis over apoptosis underlying cell death in aged females (n=4-5/group). EM revealed morphological alterations with age and OVX. Conclusion: Decreased MR and increased MPTP opening with aging are likely causal in necrotic cell death mechanisms associated with I/R injury observed in post-menopausal women.


Circulation ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 118 (suppl_18) ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa N Quinsay ◽  
Shivaji Rikka ◽  
M Richard Sayen ◽  
Jeffery D Molkentin ◽  
Roberta A Gottlieb ◽  
...  

Bnip3 is a member of the BH3-only subfamily of pro-apoptotic Bcl-2 proteins and is associated with mitochondrial dysfunction and cell death in the myocardium. The pro-apoptotic Bcl-2 proteins mediate mitochondrial dysfunction independent of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP). However, Bnip3 has been reported to mediate cell death via the mPTP. In this study, we investigated the mechanism(s) by which Bnip3 causes mitochondrial dysfunction. Using a mitochondrial swelling assay to assess pore opening, we found that addition of 200 microM Ca2+ to mitochondria isolated from rat hearts induced rapid swelling of mitochondria and release of cytochrome c (cyto c). Bnip3 also induced mitochondrial swelling and cyto c release, but always at a slower rate and to a greater degree, suggesting that Bnip3 mediates swelling via a different mechanism. Cyclosporin A (CsA), an inhibitor of mPTP opening, prevented Ca2+-induced swelling and cyto c release, but had no effect on Bnip3. Another BH3-only protein, tBid, caused release of cyto c but failed to induce swelling of mitochondria. Interestingly, Bnip3, but not Ca2+ and tBid, induced release of the matrix protein MnSOD. Cyclophilin D (cycD) is an essential component of the mPTP and heart mitochondria isolated from cycD−/− mice were resistant to Ca2+-, but not to Bnip3-induced swelling and cyto c release. Also, tBid caused cyto c release without mitochondrial swelling in the absence of cycD. To further explore the mPTP as a downstream effector of Bnip3-mediated cell death, we assessed cell death in mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) isolated from wild type (wt) and cycD−/− mice. Infection with an adenovirus expressing Bnip3 caused significant cell death in wt (52.8±1.8%) and cycD−/− (61.8±6.1%) MEFs as measured by LDH release. In addition, both Bnip3 and opening of the mPTP have been reported to initiate upregulation of autophagy. Monitoring of GFP-LC3 incorporation into autophagosomes by fluorescence microscopy revealed that Bnip3 infection induced autophagy in wt (86.5±6.6%) and cycD−/− (96.4±1.4%) MEFs (n=3, p<0.05). Thus, these studies suggest that Bnip3 mediates permeabilization of the inner and outer mitochondrial membranes via a novel mechanism that is different from other BH3-only proteins. This research has received full or partial funding support from the American Heart Association, AHA National Center.


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