Tag: Mitophagy

Researchers have published a method of rescuing cells from damaged mitochondria and cellular senescence, potentially alleviating major aspects of aging. Bad mitochondria must be consumed What is Autophagy?Autophagy, derived from ancient Greek, means "eating of self". Autophagy is the way cells break down misbehaving or nonfunctional organelles and proteins in the cell. This means that...

A paper published in Cell Stem Cell has detailed how mitochondrial division is critical to the ability of muscle stem cells to regenerate damaged tissue [1]. Waiting until needed This paper begins with a discussion of quiescent muscle stem cells, which are held in reserve until injury causes them to form new somatic muscle cells,...

Publishing in Aging, a team of researchers has discovered how puerarin, an extract of kudzu, ameliorates chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) signs in cellular cultures by limiting mitophagy: the consumption of mitochondria by cells. When autophagy isn't a good thing Mitophagy is a subset of autophagy, the consumption of any organelle by a cell. This...

Researchers from the Laboratory for Cell Function Dynamics in Japan have developed a new method for detecting mitophagy, the process of recycling damaged mitochondria. The Necessity of Mitophagy Our mitochondria are the powerhouses of our cells, turning the food we eat into ATP, the form of chemical energy that our cells use. However, over time,...

Scientists at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) have found a way to make mitochondria more resistant to damage, which could potentially be used to halt Alzheimer’s and other, similar, diseases. Globally, Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia and cause of neurodegeneration. It causes brain damage and symptoms such as long-term...