0000000000982495
AUTHOR
A Pellín
AZT treatment induces molecular and ultrastructural oxidative damage to muscle mitochondria. Prevention by antioxidant vitamins.
AIDS patients who receive zidovudine (AZT) frequently suffer from myopathy. This has been attributed to mitochondrial (mt) damage, and specifically to the loss of mtDNA. This study examines whether AZT causes oxidative damage to DNA in patients and to skeletal muscle mitochondria in mice, and whether this damage may be prevented by supranutritional doses of antioxidant vitamins. Asymptomatic HIV-infected patients treated with AZT have a higher urinary excretion (355+/-100 pmol/kg/d) of 8-oxo-7, 8-dihydro-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-oxo-dG) (a marker of oxidative damage to DNA) than untreated controls (asymptomatic HIV-infected patients) (182+/-29 pmol/kg/d). This was prevented (110+/-79 pmol/kg/d)…
Aging of the liver: Age-associated mitochondrial damage in intact hepatocytes
Mitochondrial damage may be a major cause of cellular aging. So far, this hypothesis had only been tested using isolated mitochondria. The aim of this study was to investigate the involvement of mitochondria in aging using whole liver cells and not isolated mitochondria only. Using flow cytometry, we found that age is associated with a decrease in mitochondrial membrane potential (30%), an increase in mitochondrial size, and an increase in mitochondrial peroxide generation (23%). Intracellular peroxide levels were also increased. The number of mitochondria per cell and inner mitochondrial membrane mass did not change. Gluconeogenesis from glycerol or fructose (mitochondrial-independent) did…