Functional Significance of the Mitochondrial Membrane Potentialстатья
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Дата последнего поиска статьи во внешних источниках: 10 августа 2018 г.
Аннотация:The electrical polarization of the inner mitochondrial membrane largely determines the electrochemical potential of hydrogen ions, being thereby a significant factor in the energy transformation during oxidation of respiratory substrates and its accumulation in the form of newly synthesized ATP. However, the gradient of the electric potential on the inner mitochondrial membrane (Delta psi m) performs a number of functions not related to energy production. Even under hypoxic conditions, precluding the formation of ATP in mitochondria through oxidative phosphorylation, mitochondria maintain their Delta psi m at the expense of the hydrolysis of cellular ATP, which indicates the exceptional importance of Delta psi m for non-energetic functions of mitochondria. Among these functions, the mitochondrial inward transport of metal cations and proteins carrying a positively charged amino acid sequence and export of anions including nucleic acids possibly providing retrograde signaling, seem very important and essential for maintaining mitochondrial structure and metabolism Delta psi m is a powerful regulator of mitochondrial generation of reactive oxygen species that perform physiological and pathological functions. And finally, Delta psi m is a critical element in the mechanism of disposal of dysfunctional mitochondria, the so-called quality control machinery of mitochondria. The disturbance of this mechanism leads to increase of heterogeneity in the population of mitochondria in the cell, and the degree of heterogeneity can be considered as an indicator of the pathological cellular phenotype. Correlation between Delta psi m and cell functions is difficult to identify without adequate quantitative estimates of the magnitude of Delta psi m, which are complicated due to several cellular and mitochondrial processes that affect the experimentally obtained values. Recommendations for assessing the contribution of these processes and avoiding artifacts in the measurements of Delta psi m by standard methods are given.