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Updated: May 20, 2026

The Use of Primary Human Fibroblasts for Monitoring Mitochondrial Phenotypes in the Field of Parkinson's Disease
Published on: October 3, 2012
The Parkinson's disease-related genes act in mitochondrial homeostasis
Yan Sai1, Zhongmin Zou, Kaige Peng
1The Institute of Toxicology, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China.
Abstract:
Neurons are metabolically active cells with high energy demands. Thus, neurons are particularly reliant on mitochondrial function, especially on the homeostasis properties of mitochondria. This is reflected by the observation that mitochondrial abnormalities have been well recognized to contribute to neurodegenerative diseases, like Parkinson's disease (PD). Mitochondria are highly complex and dynamic organelles continuously undergoing different alterations. The dynamic property of mitochondria is named as mitochondrial homeostasis. Imbalance of mitochondrial homeostasis is associated with neurodegenerative disease, such as Parkinson's diseases. Recently, the related genes of PD-familial, such as alpha-synuclein, Parkin, PINK1, DJ-1 and LRRK2, are observed to be associated with mitochondria, and capable of modulating normal mitochondrial integrity and functions under certain conditions. Therefore, in this review, we will focus on the action of PD-related genes in mitochondrial homeostasis.
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