Clinical & Experimental Cardiology
Open Access

What significance can be realized if think of the respiratory chain as the molecular heart

6^th International Conference on Clinical & Experimental Cardiology

November 30-December 02, 2015 San Antonio, USA

Xu Jian-xing

Institute of Biophysics, China

Posters-Accepted Abstracts: J Clin Exp Cardiolog

Abstract :

Studies in our lab have shown that the production of ATP in mitochondria by the way of electron transfer of the respiratory chain is always combined with the generation of O2 - and H2O2 through the electron leak pathways. There are four electron leak pathways in the respiratory chain. Two of the cytochrome c mediated pathways play a role in down regulating the level of O2 - and H2O2 in mitochondria. The third pathway of O2 -. + H+â��HOO. is related to the process of maintaining body temperature because the reaction of HOO�� with the double allyl hydrogen atom of the unsaturated fatty acid is heat releasing. Whether or not this pathway is related to obesity is not known. The fourth pathway is O2 -. + NOâ��ONOO�¯. The ONOO�¯ is able to pass through the cellular membrane when it combines with H+, but we do not know if the long distance penetrates membrane transfer occurs in human body. Animal models show that the level of electron leakage in the mitochondrial respiratory chain is always higher in pathological conditions. The H2O2, as the product of electron leakage, has higher pathological significance as it has longer life-span and can be spread across membranes. The fact is that the ROS generated in the electron leak pathways of mitochondrial respiratory chain have two opposite effects on the human body: the negative effect of ROS is causing oxidative damage then leading to disease or aging; the positive effect of ROS is playing as the signal to stimulate the antioxidative function and to strengthen the ability of damage repairing. What factor decides the effect of ROS playing as positive or negative roles? Does the positive effect of mitochondrial ROS have the role in protecting heart from diseases? As the substrates of respiratory chain are delivered by heart pumping, the respiratory chain can be considered as the molecular heart and the human body can be considered as the aggregate of huge number of molecular hearts. The normal operation of molecular hearts makes the human body in healthy state. The damage of molecular hearts causes the human body aging or diseases. Then a lot of inspiration to protect heart from diseases can be obtained from the research of mitochondrial respiratory chain.

Biography :

Email: xujx@sun5.ibp.ac.cn