Search results for "Human mitochondrial genetics"
showing 2 items of 2 documents
Mutations of mitochondrial DNA and human death.
1990
In the skeletal muscle of patients with mitochondrial myopathies (Kearns-Sayre syndrome and chronic progressive external ophthalmoplegia) and in the heart and skeletal muscle of healthy persons cells lacking cytochrome c oxidase are found. The respiratory-defective cells have the following features in common: onset of the defect at juvenile or adult age; progressive character of the defect with increasing age; and focal pattern of respiratory-deficient cells (fibers). A statistic mutation of mtDNA in affected cells is suggested to cause the defect of mitochondrial function. It is postulated that the continuous accumulation of respiratory-deficient cells, mainly in the human heart with incre…
Mitochondrial DNA Replication in Health and Disease
2011
Mitochondria are dynamic, semi-autonomous organelles that play a diverse role in cellular physiopathology, being involved in bioenergetics, ROS generation/signaling and redox balance, β-oxidation of free fatty acids, Ca2+ homeostasis, thermogenesis, and essential anabolic pathways (fatty acids, cholesterol, urea, haem and bile acids). They contain their own, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) which is one of the main points in favor of the hypothesis of the endosymbiotic origin of these organelles (Lang et al., 1999). The human mitochondrial genome, a 16.5 kb circular DNA consisting of a heavy and a light chain, contains 37 genes, 13 of which encode proteins involved in the mitochondrial electron tr…