Coordinate induction of energy gene expression in tissues of mitochondrial disease patients

We have examined the transcript levels of a variety of oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) and associated bioenergetic genes in tissues of a patient carrying the myopathy, encephalopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes (MELAS) A3243G mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutation and the skeletal muscles of 14 patients harboring other pathogenic mtDNA mutations. The patients' tissues, which harbored 88% or more mutant mtDNA, had increased levels of mtDNA transcripts, increased nuclear OXPHOS gene transcripts including the ATP synthase beta subunit and the heart-muscle isoform of the adenine nucleotide translocator, and increased ancillary gene transcripts including muscle mitochondrial creatine phosphokinase, muscle glycogen phosphorylase, hexokinase I, muscle phosphofructokinase, the E1alpha subunit of pyruvate dehydrogenase, and the ubiquinone oxidoreductase. A similar coordinate induction of bioenergetic genes was observed in the muscle biopsies of severe pathologic mtDNA mutations. The more significant coordinated expression was found in muscle from patients with the MELAS, myoclonic epilepsy with ragged red fibers, and chronic progressive external ophthalmoplegia deletion syndromes, with ragged red muscle fibers and mitochondrial paracrystalline inclusions. High levels of mutant mtDNAs were linked to a high induction of the mtDNA and nuclear OXPHOS genes and of several associated bioenergetic genes. These observations suggest that human tissues attempt to compensate for OXPHOS defects associated with mtDNA mutations by stimulating mitochondrial biogenesis, possibly mediated through redox-sensitive transcription factors.