OBJECTIVE To evaluate if nucleoside analogue reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) and polymerase-gamma inhibitors deplete mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in cultured primary lymphocytes and if such depletion might be associated with functional defects. METHODS Primary peripheral blood CD4 and CD8 lymphocytes were purified from six healthy humans (three male and three female), stimulated mitotic...

Cytochrome c oxidase consists of three mitochondrion- and several nucleus-encoded subunits. We previously found that in a mutant of Saccharomyces cerevisiae lacking nucleus-encoded subunit 4 of this enzyme (CoxIV), subunits 2 and 3 (CoxII and CoxIII), both encoded by the mitochondrial DNA, were unstable and rapidly degraded in mitochondria, presumably because the subunits cannot assemble normal...

Introduction: Neuropathic pain may be due to a primary insult to the peripheral or central nervous system. In this situation, Hyperalgesia and Allodynia are the results of prostaglandins and cytokines release in the spinal cord. It seems that immune cells play an importat role in the induction and maintenance of chronic pain. Compared to selective CoxII inhibitors, nimesulide, a highly select...

OBJECTIVE A depression in cytochrome c oxidase (COX) activity occurs following chronic embryonic ethanol exposure in vivo. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of chronic ethanol exposure on COX activity in isolated cardiac cells maintained in vitro. Additionally, the mechanism by which ethanol produces an impairment in COX activity was evaluated by examining mitochondrial gene expre...

The possibility of occurrence of some rearrangements inside and or around coxII and atp6 genes and their relationship with male sterility in rice lines having wild abortive (WA)  cytoplasm was studied. Two sterile (IR58025A and IR62829A) and two maintainer lines (IR58025B and IR62829B) were used. Radioactive Southern blotting was employed to carry out the experiments. The hybridization of coxII...

This study addresses the role of intracellular calcium (Ca 2÷) in the expression of iNOS, an IL-1 inducible gene in human articular chondrocytes. The calcium ionophore A23187 and ionomycindid not induce NO release or iNOS expression but inhibited dose dependently IL-l-induced NO release with IC50 of 200 nM and 100 nM, respectively. Increased intracellular Ca 2÷ induced by thapsigargin or cyclop...

DNA-protein complexes (nucleoids) are believed to be the segregating unit of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. A mitochondrial HMG box protein, Abf2p, is needed for maintenance of mtDNA in cells grown on rich dextrose medium, but is dispensible in glycerol grown cells. As visualized by 4',6'-diamino-2-phenylindole staining, mtDNA nucleoids in mutant cells lacking Abf2p ( de...

An altered pattern of epigenetic modifications, such as DNA methylation and histone modification, is critical to many common human diseases, including cancer. Recently, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) was reported to be associated with tumorigenesis through epigenetic regulation of methylation patterns. One of the promising approaches to study DNA methylation and CpG islands (CGIs) is sequencing and ...