The mitochondrial inner membrane harbors three protein translocases. Presequence translocase and carrier translocase are essential for importing nuclear-encoded proteins. The oxidase assembly (OXA) translocase is required for exporting mitochondrial-encoded proteins; however, different views exist about its relevance for nuclear-encoded proteins. We report that OXA plays a dual role in the biog...

Autophagy is the cellular homeostatic pathway that delivers large cytosolic materials for degradation in the lysosome. Recent evidence indicates that autophagy mediates selective removal of protein aggregates, organelles and microbes in cells. Yet, the specificity in targeting a particular substrate to the autophagy pathway remains poorly understood. Here, we show that the mitochondrial protein...

This paper reviews the current understanding of the molecular basis of the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ coactivator-1α (PGC-1α)-mediated pathway and discusses the role of PGC-1α in skeletal muscle atrophy caused by immobilization. PGC-1α is the master transcription regulator that stimulates mitochondrial biogenesis, by upregulating nuclear respiratory factors (NRF-1, 2) and mito...

Mitochondrial dysfunction is causatively linked to organismal aging and the development of degenerative diseases. Here we describe stress-dependent opposing roles of mitophagy, the selective autophagic degradation of mitochondria, in aging and life-span control. We report that the ablation of the mitochondrial superoxide dismutase which is involved in reactive oxygen species (ROS) balancing, do...

The purpose of this current study was to evaluate whether improvement of mitochondrial dysfunction was involved in the therapeutic effect of sevoflurane post-conditioning in global cerebral ischemia after cardiac arrest (CA) via the PI3K/Akt pathway. In the first experiment, animals were randomly divided into three groups: a sham group, a CA group, a CA+sevoflurane post-conditioning group (CA+S...

Although primary transcripts are polycistronic in the mitochondria of Trypanosoma brucei, steady-state levels of mature, monocistronic RNAs change throughout the parasitic life cycle. This indicates that steady-state RNA abundance is controlled by posttranscriptional mechanisms involving differential RNA stability. In this study, in organello pulse-chase labeling experiments were used to analyz...

Microcystins (MCs), the secondary metabolites of blue-green algae, are ubiquitous and major cyanotoxin contaminants. Besides the hepatopancreas/liver, the reproductive system is regarded as the most important target organ for MCs. Although reactive oxygen species (ROS) have been implicated in MCs-induced reproductive toxicity, the role of MCs in this pathway remains unclear. In the present stud...

The DNA base excision repair (BER) pathway is responsible for the repair of alkylation and oxidative DNA damage. The short-patch BER pathway, beginning with the simple glycosylase N-methylpurine DNA glycosylase (MPG), is responsible for the removal of damaged bases such as 3-methyladenine and 1,N(6)-ethenoadenine from the DNA after alkylation or oxidative DNA damage. The resulting apurinic site...

TRAIL is a promising therapeutic agent for human malignancies. TRAIL often requires mitochondrial dysfunction, referred to as the Type II death receptor pathway, to promote cytotoxicity. However, numerous malignant cells are TRAIL resistant due to inhibition of this mitochondrial pathway. Using cholangiocarcinoma cells as a model of TRAIL resistance, we found that Hedgehog signaling blockade se...

We have investigated the role of mitochondria on the development of indomethacin (a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug)-induced gastric mucosal apoptosis and associated gastropathy in rat. Transmission electron microscopic studies indicate that indomethacin damages mitochondrial ultrastructure and causes mitochondrial dysfunction as evident from decreased stage-3 respiration, dehydrogenase ac...