Mitochondria are responsible for creating more than 90 percent of the energy needed by the body to sustain life and support growth. ATP energy is produced when the mitochondria transfers glucose and oxygen into water and carbon dioxide. How ATP is produced and delivered to intricate neuronal dendrites has been a mystery. Credit: Mineko Kengaku, Kyoto University's Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS)
Scientists from Kyoto University's Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS) in Japan have have discovered how nerve cells adjust to low energy environments during the brain's growth process. Their study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, may one day help find treatments for nerve cell damage and neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.
Neurons in the brain have extraordinarily high energy demands due to its complex dendrites that expand to high volume and surface areas. It is also known that neurons are the first to die from restriction of blood supply to tissues, causing a shortage of oxygen and glucose needed for cellular metabolism. Little was known, however, on how cells adjust to low energy level environments in the developing brain, when mitochondria—the so-called "power plant" of the cell—do not get delivered on time, and a lag in the energy distribution occurs, which may lead to a variety of neurodegenerative disorders.
To unlock the mystery, the research team studied mitochondria and energy consumption in a live, growing nerve cell over the course of a week.
"If neurons try to grow in low ATP energy levels, they could end up deformed, and even worse, put the life of the cell itself at stake," said Kansai Fukumitsu, who was involved in the study. "Since a single mitochondria in the root of the cell is not enough to supply energy to the nerve ends, the cell distributes mitochondria to its most outer branches to deliver power where energy levels are scarce."
In areas of low ATP energy concentrations, chemical changes were brought by molecular proteins, which stopped the dendrites from growing further.
"We found two protein molecules that synergistically produced enzymes to allocate energy molecules where it is direly needed for cellular survival," says Mineko Kengaku, the principal investigator of the study from iCeMS.
In the future, Kengaku and her co-authors envision treatments for incurable diseases by mapping the nerve cell metabolism in an energy-deprived state. "If we can get a better understanding of an unhealthy neuron, we may someday find ways to cure pathologies caused by them."
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Mitochondria are responsible for creating more than 90 percent of the energy needed by the body to sustain life and support growth. ATP energy is produced when the mitochondria transfers glucose and oxygen into water and carbon dioxide. How ATP is produced and delivered to intricate neuronal dendrites has been a mystery. Credit: Mineko Kengaku, Kyoto University's Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS)
Scientists from Kyoto University's Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS) in Japan have have discovered how nerve cells adjust to low energy environments during the brain's growth process. Their study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, may one day help find treatments for nerve cell damage and neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.
Neurons in the brain have extraordinarily high energy demands due to its complex dendrites that expand to high volume and surface areas. It is also known that neurons are the first to die from restriction of blood supply to tissues, causing a shortage of oxygen and glucose needed for cellular metabolism. Little was known, however, on how cells adjust to low energy level environments in the developing brain, when mitochondria—the so-called "power plant" of the cell—do not get delivered on time, and a lag in the energy distribution occurs, which may lead to a variety of neurodegenerative disorders.
To unlock the mystery, the research team studied mitochondria and energy consumption in a live, growing nerve cell over the course of a week.
"If neurons try to grow in low ATP energy levels, they could end up deformed, and even worse, put the life of the cell itself at stake," said Kansai Fukumitsu, who was involved in the study. "Since a single mitochondria in the root of the cell is not enough to supply energy to the nerve ends, the cell distributes mitochondria to its most outer branches to deliver power where energy levels are scarce."
In areas of low ATP energy concentrations, chemical changes were brought by molecular proteins, which stopped the dendrites from growing further.
"We found two protein molecules that synergistically produced enzymes to allocate energy molecules where it is direly needed for cellular survival," says Mineko Kengaku, the principal investigator of the study from iCeMS.
In the future, Kengaku and her co-authors envision treatments for incurable diseases by mapping the nerve cell metabolism in an energy-deprived state. "If we can get a better understanding of an unhealthy neuron, we may someday find ways to cure pathologies caused by them."
Explore further: How Alzheimer's peptides shut down cellular powerhouses
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New light shed on early stage Alzheimer's disease
The disrupted metabolism of sugar, fat and calcium is part of the process that causes the death of neurons in Alzheimer's disease. Researchers from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have now shown, for the first time, how important ...
How Alzheimer's peptides shut down cellular powerhouses
The failing in the work of nerve cells: An international team of researchers led by Prof. Dr. Chris Meisinger from the Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of the University of Freiburg has discovered ...
Researchers discover how brain cells change their tune (w/ Video)
Brain cells talk to each other in a variety of tones. Sometimes they speak loudly but other times struggle to be heard. For many years scientists have asked why and how brain cells change tones so frequently. ...
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New research, published in Neuron, gives insight into how single mutations in the VCP gene cause a range of neurological conditions including a form of dementia called Inclusion Body Myopathy, Paget's Disease of the Bone a ...
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Hodor hodor hodor. Hodor hodor? Hodor. Hodor-hodor. Hodor!
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