Mitochondrial Complex 1 Activity Measured by Spectrophotometry Is Reduced across All Brain Regions in Ageing and More Specifically in Neurodegeneration

Mitochondrial function, in particular complex 1 of the electron transport chain (ETC), has been shown to decrease during normal ageing and in neurodegenerative disease. However, there is some debate concerning which area of the brain has the greatest complex 1 activity. It is important to identify t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2016-06, Vol.11 (6), p.e0157405-e0157405
Main Authors: Pollard, Amelia Kate, Craig, Emma Louise, Chakrabarti, Lisa
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age factors
Aging - metabolism
Analysis
Animal tissues
Animals
Ataxia
Biology and Life Sciences
Brain
Brain - metabolism
Brain stem
Brain Stem - metabolism
Cerebellum
Cerebral Cortex - metabolism
Cerebral Cortex - pathology
Cortex
Electron transport
Electron transport chain
Electron Transport Complex I - metabolism
Frozen Sections
Measurement
Medicine and Health Sciences
Mice, Inbred C57BL
Mitochondria
Mitochondria - metabolism
Mitochondrial DNA
Mutation
Nerve Degeneration - metabolism
Nerve Degeneration - pathology
Neurodegeneration
Neurodegenerative diseases
Research and Analysis Methods
Risk factors
Rodents
Specimen Handling
Spectrophotometry
Spectrophotometry - methods
Veterinary colleges
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Summary:Mitochondrial function, in particular complex 1 of the electron transport chain (ETC), has been shown to decrease during normal ageing and in neurodegenerative disease. However, there is some debate concerning which area of the brain has the greatest complex 1 activity. It is important to identify the pattern of activity in order to be able to gauge the effect of age or disease related changes. We determined complex 1 activity spectrophotometrically in the cortex, brainstem and cerebellum of middle aged mice (70-71 weeks), a cerebellar ataxic neurodegeneration model (pcd5J) and young wild type controls. We share our updated protocol on the measurements of complex1 activity and find that mitochondrial fractions isolated from frozen tissues can be measured for robust activity. We show that complex 1 activity is clearly highest in the cortex when compared with brainstem and cerebellum (p
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0157405