BACKGROUND Exposure to black carbon (BC), a tracer of vehicular-traffic pollution, is associated with increased blood pressure (BP). Identifying biological factors that attenuate BC effects on BP can inform prevention. We evaluated the role of mitochondrial abundance, an adaptive mechanism compensating for cellular-redox imbalance, in the BC-BP relationship. METHODS AND RESULTS At ≥ 1 visits ...

Studies were undertaken to determine whether deoxyribonuclease I, (DNase I) once immobilized on activated nylon microspheres, would be capable of degrading circulating DNA in vitro and in vivo in an extracorporeal circulation system in dogs. Nylon microspheres were prepared and after gentle hydrolysis and glutaraldehyde treatment, demonstrated a retention of up to 4.73 mg of Dnase I. In vitro s...

BACKGROUND Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSAS) is a disease associated with the increase of cardiovascular risk and it is characterized by repeated episodes of Intermittent Hypoxia (IH) which inducing oxidative stress and systemic inflammation. Mitochondria are cell organelles involved in the respiratory that have their own DNA (MtDNA). The aim of this study was to investigate if the increase of oxi...

After the radiation of eukaryotes, the NUO operon, controlling the transcription of the NADH dehydrogenase complex of the oxidative phosphorylation system (OXPHOS complex I), was broken down and genes encoding this protein complex were dispersed across the nuclear genome. Seven genes, however, were retained in the genome of the mitochondrion, the ancient symbiote of eukaryotes. This division, i...

The field of phylogeography has long since realized the need and utility of incorporating nuclear DNA (nDNA) sequences into analyses. However, the use of nDNA sequence data, at the population level, has been hindered by technical laboratory difficulty, sequencing costs, and problematic analytical methods dealing with genotypic sequence data, especially in non-model organisms. Here, we present a...

Valproic acid (VPA) is one of the most widely prescribed antiepileptic drugs in the world. Despite its pharmacological importance, it may cause liver toxicity and steatosis through mitochondrial dysfunction. The aim of this study is to further investigate VPA-induced mechanisms of steatosis by analyzing changes in patterns of methylation in nuclear DNA (nDNA) and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). Ther...

The levels of 8-oxo-2-deoxyguanosine (oxo8dG) in DNA isolated from tissues of rodents (male F344 rats, male B6D2F1 mice, male C57BL/6 mice, and female C57BL/6 mice) of various ages were measured using sodium iodide to prevent oxidative damage to DNA during DNA isolation. Oxo8dG was measured in nuclear DNA (nDNA) isolated from liver, heart, brain, kidney, skeletal muscle, and spleen and in mitoc...

The human mitochondrial genome involves over 1,000 genes, dispersed across the maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and the biparentally inherited nuclear DNA (nDNA). The mtDNA encodes 13 core proteins that determine the efficiency of the mitochondrial energy-generating system, oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS), plus the RNA genes for their translation within the mitochondrion. The m...

Data accumulated in recent years that yeast mitochondria contain DNA (mDNA) with a base composition different from that of nuclear DNA (nDNA) 1 support genetic and biochemical evidence2 that these are the cytoplasmic factors determining respiratory competence. Since phenotypic expression of the respiratory function of mitochondria is under nuclear control (segregational petites),3 the synthesis...

BACKGROUND Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), a potent proinflammatory damage-associated molecular pattern, is released in large titers following trauma. The effect of trauma surgery on mtDNA concentration is unknown. We hypothesized that mtDNA and nuclear DNA (nDNA) levels would increase proportionately with the magnitude of surgery and both would then decrease rapidly. METHODS In this prospective p...