Renal oncocytomas (RO) and chromophobe renal cell carcinomas (RCC) display morphological and functional alterations of the mitochondria. Previous studies showed that accumulation of mitochondria in ROs is associated with somatic mutations of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) resulting in decreased activity of the respiratory chain complex I, whereas in chromophobe RCC only heteroplasmic mtDNA mutations...

Deficiencies of the mitochondrial respiratory chain or the phosphorylation system are becoming increasingly recognized causes of myopathy and multisystem disease in man. In biochemical terms, the ones most clearly defined have been associated with impaired activities of NADH : ubiquinone reductase (Morgan-Hughes el al., 1979, 1984; Land et al., 1981; Moreadith etal., 1984), ubiquino1:cytochrome...

Increased H2O2 production, indicating higher oxidative stress, and lower mitochondrial function was previously observed in duodenal mitochondria isolated from broilers with low feed efficiency (FE, gain:feed). Thus, experiments were conducted to 1) evaluate the activity of the respiratory chain complexes (complexes I to V) and 2) assess protein oxidation and mitochondrial protein expression in ...

Mitochondria are important for the viral life cycle, mainly by providing the energy required for viral replication and assembly. A highly complex interaction with mitochondria is exerted by rubella virus (RV), which includes an increase in the mitochondrial membrane potential as a general marker for mitochondrial activity. We aimed in this study to provide a more comprehensive picture of the ac...

OBJECTIVE To analyse muscle respiratory chain enzymes in idiopathic inflammatory myopathy. METHODS Four consecutive female patients seen at our hospital with idiopathic inflammatory myopathy were studied. Muscle histochemical staining included NADH tetrazolium reductase and succinate dehydrogenase tests. Activity of rotenone sensitive NADH cytochrome c reductase (complex I and III) succinate ...

Background: Varicocele is the abnormal tortuosity and dilatation of the veins of the pampiniform plexus within the spermatic cord. Varicocele-related pathology is suspected in infertility as it leads to elevated temperatures in the scrotum and testes, which has a deleterious effect on spermatogenesis. In Varicocele patients, ROS production is enhanced and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) is red...

The mitochondrial import machinery and the respiratory chain complexes of the inner membrane are highly interdependent for the efficient import and assembly of nuclear encoded respiratory chain components and for the generation of a proton motive force essential for protein translocation into or across the inner membrane. In plant and non-plant systems functional, physical, and evolutionary ass...

Platelets can serve as general markers of mitochondrial (dys)function during several human diseases. Whether this holds true even during sepsis is unknown. Using spectrophotometry, we measured mitochondrial respiratory chain biochemistry in platelets and triceps brachii muscle of thirty patients with septic shock (within 24 hours from admission to Intensive Care) and ten surgical controls (duri...