Publication Date:
2015-05-27
Description:
Mitochondrial function is key for maintaining cellular health, while mitochondrial failure is associated with various pathologies, including inherited metabolic disorders and age-related diseases. In order to maintain mitochondrial quality, several pathways of mitochondrial quality control have evolved. These systems monitor mitochondrial integrity through antioxidants, DNA repair systems, and chaperones and proteases involved in the mitochondrial unfolded protein response. Additional regulation of mitochondrial function involves dynamic exchange of components through mitochondrial fusion and fission. Sustained stress induces a selective autophagy – termed mitophagy – and ultimately leads to apoptosis. Together, these systems form a network that acts on the molecular, organellar, and cellular level. In this review, we highlight how these systems are regulated in an integrated context- and time-dependent network of mitochondrial quality control that is implicated in healthy aging. Mitochondrial stress is an important hallmark of metabolic diseases and aging. Various mitochondrial stress response pathways are in place to counter this imposed stress. In this review, we discuss the existing mitochondrial quality control pathways, and focus on the recent insight that these pathways are highly context- and time-dependent.
Print ISSN:
0265-9247
Electronic ISSN:
1521-1878
Topics:
Biology
,
Medicine
