Imbalance of Mitochondrial Respiratory Chain Complexes in the Epidermis Induces Severe Skin Inflammation.

Accumulation of large-scale mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) deletions and chronic, subclinical inflammation are concomitant during skin aging, thus raising the question of a causal link. To approach this, we generated mice expressing a mutant mitochondrial helicase (K320E-TWINKLE) in the epidermis to accelerate the accumulation of mtDNA deletions in this skin compartment. Mice displayed low amounts of large-scale deletions and a dramatic depletion of mtDNA in the epidermis and showed macroscopic signs of severe skin inflammation. The mtDNA alterations led to an imbalanced stoichiometry of mitochondrial respiratory chain complexes, inducing a unique combination of cytokine expression, causing a severe inflammatory phenotype, with massive immune cell infiltrates already before birth. Altogether, these data unraveled a previously unknown link between an imbalanced stoichiometry of the mitochondrial respiratory chain complexes and skin inflammation and suggest that severe respiratory chain dysfunction, as observed in few cells leading to a mosaic in aged tissues, might be involved in the development of chronic subclinical inflammation.

Mosaic Deficiency in Mitochondrial Oxidative Metabolism Promotes Cardiac Arrhythmia during Aging.

Aging is a progressive decline of body function, during which many tissues accumulate few cells with high levels of deleted mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), leading to a defect of mitochondrial functions. Whether this mosaic mitochondrial deficiency contributes to organ dysfunction is unknown. To investigate this, we generated mice with an accelerated accumulation of mtDNA deletions in the myocardium, by expressing a dominant-negative mutant mitochondrial helicase. These animals accumulated few randomly distributed cardiomyocytes with compromised mitochondrial function, which led to spontaneous ventricular premature contractions and AV blocks at 18 months. These symptoms were not caused by a general mitochondrial dysfunction in the entire myocardium, and were not observed in mice at 12 months with significantly lower numbers of dysfunctional cells. Therefore, our results suggest that the disposition to arrhythmia typically found in the aged human heart might be due to the random accumulation of mtDNA deletions and the subsequent mosaic respiratory chain deficiency.

Catecholamine metabolism drives generation of mitochondrial DNA deletions in dopaminergic neurons.

Accumulation of mitochondrial DNA deletions is observed especially in dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra during ageing and even more in Parkinson's disease. The resulting mitochondrial dysfunction is suspected to play an important role in neurodegeneration. However, the molecular mechanisms involved in the preferential generation of mitochondrial DNA deletions in dopaminergic neurons are still unknown. To study this phenomenon, we developed novel polymerase chain reaction strategies to detect distinct mitochondrial DNA deletions and monitor their accumulation patterns. Applying these approaches in in vitro and in vivo models, we show that catecholamine metabolism drives the generation and accumulation of these mitochondrial DNA mutations. As in humans, age-related accumulation of mitochondrial DNA deletions is most prominent in dopaminergic areas of mouse brain and even higher in the catecholaminergic adrenal medulla. Dopamine treatment of terminally differentiated neuroblastoma cells, as well as stimulation of dopamine turnover in mice over-expressing monoamine oxidase B both induce multiple mitochondrial DNA deletions. Our results thus identify catecholamine metabolism as the driving force behind mitochondrial DNA deletions, probably being an important factor in the ageing-associated degeneration of dopaminergic neurons.

The mitochondrial electron transport chain is dispensable for proliferation and differentiation of epidermal progenitor cells.

Tissue stem cells and germ line or embryonic stem cells were shown to have reduced oxidative metabolism, which was proposed to be an adaptive mechanism to reduce damage accumulation caused by reactive oxygen species. However, an alternate explanation is that stem cells are less dependent on specialized cytoplasmic functions compared with differentiated cells, therefore, having a high nuclear-to-cytoplasmic volume ratio and consequently a low mitochondrial content. To determine whether stem cells rely or not on mitochondrial respiration, we selectively ablated the electron transport chain in the basal layer of the epidermis, which includes the epidermal progenitor/stem cells (EPSCs). This was achieved using a loxP-flanked mitochondrial transcription factor A (Tfam) allele in conjunction with a keratin 14 Cre transgene. The epidermis of these animals (Tfam(EKO)) showed a profound depletion of mitochondrial DNA and complete absence of respiratory chain complexes. However, despite a short lifespan due to malnutrition, epidermal development and skin barrier function were not impaired. Differentiation of epidermal layers was normal and no proliferation defect or major increase of apoptosis could be observed. In contrast, mice with an epidermal ablation of prohibitin-2, a scaffold protein in the inner mitochondrial membrane, displayed a dramatic phenotype observable already in utero, with severely impaired skin architecture and barrier function, ultimately causing death from dehydration shortly after birth. In conclusion, we here provide unequivocal evidence that EPSCs, and probably tissue stem cells in general, are independent of the mitochondrial respiratory chain, but still require a functional dynamic mitochondrial compartment.