U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH NIH News
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) <
https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/>
For Immediate Release: Tuesday, April 18, 2017
CONTACT: NHLBI Engagement and Media Relations Branch, 301-496-5449, <e-mail:nhlbi_news@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
RESEARCHERS DISCOVER MITOCHONDRIAL “CIRCUIT BREAKER” THAT PROTECTS HEART FROM DAMAGE
Two newly identified mechanisms may lead to better understanding of disease, new treatments
A team of scientists from the National Institutes of Health has discovered biological mechanisms that appear to prevent damage to the heart muscle’s “power grid,” the network of mitochondrial circuits that provide energy to cells. One of those mechanisms, the researchers found, acts much like a circuit breaker, allowing energy to continue moving throughout the heart muscle cells even when individual components of those cells—the mitochondria—have been damaged.
Such protective mechanisms could one day help better understand how heart and skeletal muscle function under both healthy and unhealthy conditions, such as with heart disease, mitochondrial diseases, and muscular dystrophy, the researchers say. Their study appears in Cell Reports. The lead author of the study is Brian Glancy, Ph.D., an investigator with the Muscle Energetics Laboratory of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), which is part of NIH.
In 2015, members of this same NIH research team announced the discovery of the so-called mitochondrial power grid <
https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/news/press-releases/2015/high-resolution-3d-images-reveal-muscle-mitochondrial-power-grid> in the skeletal muscle. Since that pivotal discovery, some scientists have raised questions about how such a grid would protect itself from damage to the muscle cells. This new finding offers some key insights.
Using high-resolution 3D images and special light-activated probes, the scientists revealed a two-part system protecting the heart muscle’s power grid from disease-related damage. Instead of being organized as one large, grid-like network such as in skeletal muscle, the mitochondrial circuits in the heart are arranged in parallel rows that form several smaller subnetworks, the researchers found. This subnetwork acts as a mechanism to prevent damage by limiting the spread of electrical dysfunction to smaller regions.
The researchers compared the newly discovered circuit breaker mechanism to lightning striking a city power grid: Lights may flicker over the whole city, but once the circuit breaker activates, only part of the city loses power.
In addition to primary support by NHLBI, this study is also supported by the National Cancer Institute, which is also part of NIH.
About the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI): NHLBI, a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), plans, conducts, and supports research related to the causes, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of heart, blood vessel, lung, and blood diseases; and sleep disorders. The Institute also administers national health education campaigns on women and heart disease, healthy weight for children, and other topics. NHLBI press releases and other materials are available online at <www.nhlbi.nih.gov>.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit <www.nih.gov>.
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The online version of this news release contains a high-resolution microscopic image of mitochondria within a single heart cell. Mitochondria highlighted in red were exposed to ultraviolet light.Credit: NHLBI <
https://www.nih.gov/sites/default/files/news-events/news-releases/2017/20170418-mitochondria.jpg>
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