Ebadi M
Department of Pharmacology, Physiology and Therapeutics, University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Grand Forks, ND 58203, USA.
Biol Signals Recept. 2001 Jan-Apr;10(1-2):5-13. doi: 10.1159/000046872.
These special issues of Biological Signals and Receptors are intended to describe mitochondrial DNA damage, oxidative stress and human diseases, including neurodegenerative and neuromuscular diseases, disorders associated with aging, and ischemia-perfusion injury. Traditionally, mitochondria have been viewed as the 'powerhouse' of the cell, i.e., the site of the oxidative phosphorylation machinery involved in adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production. Consequently, much of the research conducted on mitochondria over the past 4 decades has focused on elucidating both those molecular events involved in ATP synthesis by oxidative phosphorylation and those involved in the biogenesis of the oxidative phosphorylation machinery. While monumental achievements have been made, and continue to be made, in the study of these remarkable but extremely complex processes essential for the life of most animal cells, it has been only in recent years that a large body of biological and biomedical scientists have come to recognize that mitochondria participate in other important processes. Two of these are cell death and aging which, not surprisingly, are related processes both involving, in part, the oxidative phosphorylation machinery. This new awareness has sparked a new and growing area of mitochondrial research that has become of great interest to a wide variety of scientists ranging from those involved in elucidating the role of mitochondria in cell death and aging to those interested in either suppressing or facilitating these processes as it relates to identifying new therapies or drugs for human disease.
《生物信号与受体》的这些特刊旨在描述线粒体DNA损伤、氧化应激与人类疾病，包括神经退行性疾病和神经肌肉疾病、与衰老相关的病症以及缺血-灌注损伤。传统上，线粒体一直被视为细胞的“动力室”，即参与三磷酸腺苷（ATP）生成的氧化磷酸化机制的场所。因此，在过去40年里，对线粒体进行的许多研究都集中在阐明氧化磷酸化参与ATP合成的分子事件以及氧化磷酸化机制的生物发生过程。虽然在研究这些对大多数动物细胞生命至关重要但极其复杂的过程中已经取得并仍在取得巨大成就，但直到近年来，大量生物和生物医学科学家才开始认识到线粒体参与其他重要过程。其中两个过程是细胞死亡和衰老，毫不奇怪，它们是相关过程，部分都涉及氧化磷酸化机制。这种新认识引发了线粒体研究的一个新的且不断发展的领域，这已引起了从那些致力于阐明线粒体在细胞死亡和衰老中的作用的科学家到那些对抑制或促进与确定人类疾病新疗法或药物相关的这些过程感兴趣的各种各样科学家的极大兴趣。
