Welcome to the new version of CaltechAUTHORS. Login is currently restricted to library staff. If you notice any issues, please email coda@library.caltech.edu
Published July 5, 1996 | Published
Journal Article Open

Aging-dependent functional alterations of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from human fibroblasts transferred into mtDNA-less cells

Abstract

To investigate the role that aging-dependent accumulation of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations plays in the senescence processes, mitochondria from fibroblasts of 21 normal human individuals between 20 weeks (fetal) and 103 years of age were introduced into human mtDNA-less (ρ0) 206 cells by cytoplast × ρ0 cell fusion, and 7-31 transformant clones were isolated from each fusion. A slight cell donor age-dependent decrease in growth rate was detected in the transformants. Using an O2 consumption rate of 1 fmol/min/cell, which was not observed in any transformant among 158 derived from individuals 20 weeks (fetal) to 37 years of age, as a cut-off to identify respiratory-deficient clones, 11 such clones were found among 198 transformants derived from individuals 39-103 years of age. Furthermore, conventional and nonparametric analysis of the respiratory rates of 356 clones revealed a very significant decrease with donor age. In other analyses, a very significant age-dependent decline in the mtDNA content of the clones was observed, without, however, any significant correlation with the decrease in O2 consumption rate in the defective transformants. These observations clearly indicate the occurrence in the fibroblast-derived transformants of two independent, age-related functional alterations of mtDNA, presumably resulting from structural damage to this genome.

Additional Information

© 1996 American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Received for publication, January 16, 1996, and in revised form, April 7, 1996. We thank A. Drew, B. Keeley, L. Thomas, and R. Zedan for valuable technical assistance. These investigations were supported by National Institutes of Health NIA Grant AG12117-05 (to G.A.) and National Research Service Award Postdoctoral Fellowship AG05612-03 (to K.L.). The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

Attached Files

Published - LADjbc96.pdf

Files

LADjbc96.pdf
Files (149.0 kB)
Name Size Download all
md5:24e771a3c556065dbe6c3418186e9f1e
149.0 kB Preview Download

Additional details

Created:
August 22, 2023
Modified:
October 17, 2023