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The Role of Adenine Nucleotide Translocase in the Mitochondrial Permeability Transition
No full textThe mitochondrial permeability transition, a Ca2+-induced significant increase in permeability of the inner mitochondrial membrane, plays an important role in various pathologies. The mitochondrial permeability transition is caused by induction of the permeability transition pore (PTP). Despite significant effort, the molecular composition of the PTP is not completely clear and remains an area of hot debate. The Ca2+-modified adenine nucleotide translocase (ANT) and F0F1 ATP synthase are the major contenders for the role of pore in the PTP. This paper briefly overviews experimental results focusing on the role of ANT in the mitochondrial permeability transition and proposes that multiple molecular entities might be responsible for the conductance pathway of the PTP. Consequently, the term PTP cannot be applied to a single specific protein such as ANT or a protein complex such as F0F1 ATP synthase, but rather should comprise a variety of potential contributors to increased permeability of the inner mitochondrial membrane
Limitations of Cyclosporin A Inhibition of the Permeability Transition in CNS Mitochondria
No full textActivation of the mitochondrial permeability transition may contribute to excitotoxic neuronal death (Ankarcrona et al., 1996;Dubinsky and Levi, 1998). However, cyclosporin A (CsA), a potent inhibitor of the permeability transition in liver mitochondria, only protects against neuronal injury by limited doses of glutamate and selected ischemic paradigms. The lack of consistent CsA inhibition of the mitochondrial permeability transition was analyzed with the use of isolated brain mitochondria. Changes in the permeability of the inner mitochondrial membrane were evaluated by monitoring mitochondrial membrane potential (Δψ), using the distribution of tetraphenylphosphonium, and by monitoring mitochondrial swelling, using light absorbance measurements. Metabolic impairments, large Ca2+loads, omission of external Mg2+, or low doses of palmitic acid or the protonophore FCCP exacerbated Ca2+-induced sustained depolarizations and swelling and eliminated CsA inhibition. BSA restored CsA inhibition in mitochondria challenged with 50 μmCa2+,but not with 100 μmCa2+. CsA failed to prevent Ca2+-induced depolarization or to repolarize mitochondria when mitochondria were depolarized excessively. Similarly, CsA failed to prevent mitochondrial swelling or PEG-induced shrinkage after swelling when the Ca2+challenge produced a strong, sustained depolarization. Thus in brain mitochondria CsA may be effective only as an inhibitor of the permeability transition and the Ca2+-activated low permeability state under conditions of partial depolarization. In contrast, ADP plus oligomycin inhibited both permeabilities under all of the conditions that were tested.In situ, the neuroprotective action of CsA may be limited to glutamate challenges sufficiently toxic to induce the permeability transition but not so severe that mitochondrial depolarization exceeds threshold.</jats:p
Monitoring of Permeability Transition Pore Openings in Isolated Individual Brain Mitochondria
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Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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