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Updated: May 11, 2026

Assessment of Mitochondrial Health in Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts Isolated from 3D Multicellular Lung Tumor Spheroids
Published on: October 21, 2022
Mitochondrial transcription factor A regulated ionizing radiation-induced mitochondrial biogenesis in human lung
1School of Nuclear Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230027, PR China.
Abstract:
Mitochondrial transcription factor A (TFAM), the first well-characterized transcription factor from vertebrate mitochondria, is closely related to mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) maintenance and repair. Recent evidence has shown that the ratio of mtDNA to nuclearDNA (nDNA) is increased in both human cells and murine tissues after ionizing radiation (IR). However, the underlying mechanism has not as yet been clearly identified. In the present study, we demonstrated that in human lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells, expression of TFAM was upregulated, together with the increase of the relative mtDNA copy number and cytochrome c oxidase (COX) activity after α-particle irradiation. Furthermore, short hairpin RNA (shRNA)-mediated TFAM knockdown inhibited the enhancement of the relative mtDNA copy number and COX activity caused by α-particles. Taken together, our data suggested that TFAM plays a crucial role in regulating mtDNA amplification and mitochondrial biogenesis under IR conditions.
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