- 作者: Hsin-Chen Lee; Yau-Huei Wei
- 作者服務機構: Department of Biochemistry and Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China
- 中文摘要: --
- 英文摘要: Mitochondria are the major ATP producer of the mam-malian cell. Moreover, mitochondria are also the mainintracellular source and target of reactive oxygen species(ROS) that are continually generated as by-products ofaerobic metabolism in human cells. A low level of ROSgenerated from the respiratory chain was recently pro-posed to take part in the signaling from mitochondria tothe nucleus. Several structural characteristics of mito-chondria and the mitochondrial genome enable them tosense and respond to extracellular and intracellular sig-nals or stresses in order to sustain the life of the cell. Ithas been established that mitochondrial respiratoryfunction declines with age, and that defects in the respi-ratory chain increase the production of ROS and free rad-icals in mitochondria. Within a certain concentrationrange, ROS may induce stress responses of the cell byaltering the expression of a number of genes in order touphold energy metabolism to rescue the cell. However,beyond this threshold, ROS may elicit apoptosis byinduction of mitochondrial membrane permeability tran-sition and release of cytochrome c. Intensive research inthe past few years has established that mitochondriaplay a pivotal role in the early phase of apoptosis inmammalian cells. In this article, the role of mitochondriain the determination of life and death of the cell isreviewed on the basis of recent findings gathered fromthis and other laboratories.
- 中文關鍵字: --
- 英文關鍵字: --