title: Study of Age-Dependent Structural and Functional Changes of Mitochondria in Skeletal Muscles and Heart of Naked Mole Rats (Heterocephalus glaber).
abstract: Morphometric analysis of mitochondria in skeletal muscles and heart of 6- and 60-month-old naked mole rats (Heterocephalus glaber) revealed a significant age-dependent increase in the total area of mitochondrial cross-sections in studied muscle fibers. For 6- and 60-month-old animals, these values were 4.8 ± 0.4 and 12.7 ± 1.8%, respectively. This effect is mainly based on an increase in the number of mitochondria. In 6-month-old naked mole rats, there were 0.23 ± 0.02 mitochondrial cross-sections per µm2of muscle fiber, while in 60-month-old animals this value was 0.47 ± 0.03. The average area of a single mitochondrial cross-section also increased with age in skeletal muscles - from 0.21 ± 0.01 to 0.29 ± 0.03 µm2. Thus, naked mole rats show a drastic enlargement of the mitochondrial apparatus in skeletal muscles with age due to an increase in the number of mitochondria and their size. They possess a neotenic type of chondriome accompanied by specific features of mitochondrial functioning in the state of oxidative phosphorylation and a significant decrease in the level of matrix adenine nucleotides.
authors.affiliation: Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Department of Reproduction Management, Berlin, 10315, Germany. holtze@izw-berlin.de.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Holtze
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Eldarov
authors.forename: V B
authors.initials: VB
authors.lastname: Vays
authors.forename: I M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Vangeli
authors.forename: M Yu
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Vysokikh
authors.forename: L E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Bakeeva
authors.forename: V P
authors.initials: VP
authors.lastname: Skulachev
authors.forename: T B
authors.initials: TB
authors.lastname: Hildebrandt
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging; D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008929:Mitochondria, Heart / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008931:Mitochondria, Muscle / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D019577:Mole Rats; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D010101:Oxygen Consumption; D017208:Rats, Wistar