title: Functional and structural alterations of cardiac and skeletal muscle mitochondria in heart failure patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The fundamental mechanisms involved in the genesis and progression of heart failure are not clearly understood. The present study was conducted to analyze the cardiac mitochondrial involvement in heart failure, the possible parallelism between cardiac and skeletal muscle and if there is a link between clinical symptoms and mitochondrial damage.
  
  
  METHODS
  Left ventricle and pectoral biopsies were obtained from patients with heart failure (n: 21) and patients with inter-auricular communication as the unique diagnosis for surgery (n: 6). Mitochondria were isolated from these tissues and studied through electron microscopy, spectrophotometry to measure the activity of respiratory complex III and immunohistochemistry to determine the presence of reactive oxygen species.
  
  
  RESULTS
  More than 90% of cardiac and skeletal muscle mitochondria presented structural and functional alterations in relation to an increment in the reactive oxygen species production, even in patients without the presence of any clinical Framingham criteria.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We demonstrated some parallelism between cardiac and skeletal muscle mitochondrial alterations in patients with heart failure and that these alterations begin before the major clinical Framingham criteria are installed, pointing to mitochondria as one of the possibly responsible factors for the evolution of cardiac disease.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud (INICSA)-Cátedra de Física Biomédica, FCM, UNC/CONICET, Córdoba, Argentina.
authors.forename: Gustavo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Guzmán Mentesana
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud (INICSA)-Cátedra de Física Biomédica, FCM, UNC/CONICET, Córdoba, Argentina.
authors.forename: Alejandra L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Báez
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud (INICSA)-Cátedra de Física Biomédica, FCM, UNC/CONICET, Córdoba, Argentina.
authors.forename: María S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Lo Presti
authors.affiliation: INCOR, La Rioja, Argentina.
authors.forename: Ricardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Domínguez
authors.affiliation: Allende Clinic, Códoba, Argentina.
authors.forename: Roque
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Córdoba
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud (INICSA)-Cátedra de Física Biomédica, FCM, UNC/CONICET, Córdoba, Argentina.
authors.forename: Carolina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bazán
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud (INICSA)-Cátedra de Física Biomédica, FCM, UNC/CONICET, Córdoba, Argentina.
authors.forename: Mariana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Strauss
authors.affiliation: Cátedra de Biología Celular Embriología y Genética, FCM, UNC, Córdoba, Argentina.
authors.forename: Ricardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fretes
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud (INICSA)-Cátedra de Física Biomédica, FCM, UNC/CONICET, Córdoba, Argentina.
authors.forename: Héctor W
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Rivarola
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud (INICSA)-Cátedra de Física Biomédica, FCM, UNC/CONICET, Córdoba, Argentina. Electronic address: ppaglini@mater.fcm.unc.edu.ar.
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Paglini-Oliva
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008931:Mitochondria, Muscle / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D009206:Myocardium / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species
keywords: Cardiac and skeletal muscle; Heart failure; Mitochondria