Conclusions

We discovered that mitochondrial disease is more important to our health than we ever thought it would be.

We had the chance to see how people is concerned about this unusual sickness. 

We are going to continue doing more research to help other students know more about this topic. 

Team members

Maria del Carmen Avella Arteaga 

Jimenez Cayetano Karla Marina

Acosta Lucero Brandon Alejandro 

We belong to the group: 606

And our teacher is Mercedes Camacho.

On this paper we reviewed all of the units we've seen so far in our English and biology class. 

WE ARE PROUD TO PRESENT OUR BLOG after a long time working on it. 

ENJOY!!!

Stein Institute for Research on Aging (Brandon)

Here's a video presenting Dr. Douglas C. Wallace. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caLT_8MQZGw&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Mirochondrias, our best friends. (Karla Jimenez)

Mitochondria are responsible for creating the energy needed by the body to sustain life and growth support. When they fail, less and less energy is generated within the cell. If this process is repeated throughout the body, whole systems begin to fail, and the life of the person in whom this is happening is severely compromised. Diseases of the mitochondria appear to cause the most damage to cells of the brain, heart, liver, skeletal muscles, kidney and the endocrine and respiratory systems.

The main function is to produce ATP but there are functions not related to ATP are intimately involved with most major metabolic pathways used by a cell to build , operate and recycle their molecular components . Cells can not even make RNA and DNA they need to grow and function without mitochondria. The building blocks of DNA and RNA are purines and pyrimidines . Mitochondria contain the rate limiting enzymes of pyrimidine biosynthesis ( dihydroorotate dehydrogenase ) and the synthesis of heme ( d - amino levulinic acid synthetase ) necessary to produce hemoglobin . In the liver , mitochondria are specialized to detoxify ammonia in the urea cycle . Mitochondria for metabolism of cholesterol , for the synthesis of estrogen and testosterone , for metabolism of neurotransmitter , and to the production of free radicals and detoxification are also required.

Mitochondrial defects in cancer (Acosta Brandon)

Alterations in expression of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)-encoded polypeptides required for oxidative phosphorylation and cellular ATP generation may be a general characteristic of cancer cells. Mitochondrial DNA has been proposed to be involved in carcinogenesis because of high susceptibility to mutations and limited repair mechanisms in comparison to nuclear DNA. Since mtDNA lacks introns, it has been suggested that most mutations will occur in coding sequences and subsequent accumulation of mutations may lead to tumor formation. The mitochondrial genome is dependent upon the nuclear genome for transcription, translation, replication and repair, but precise mechanisms for how the two genomes interact and integrate with each other are poorly understood. In solid tumors, elevated expression of mtDNA-encoded subunits of the mitochondrial electron respiratory chain may reflect mitochondrial adaptation to perturbations in cellular energy requirements. In this paper, we review mitochondrial genomic aberrations reported in solid tumors of the breast, colon, stomach, liver, kidney, bladder, head/neck and lung as well as for hematologic diseases such as leukemia, myelodysplastic syndrome and lymphoma. We include data for elevated expression of mtDNA-encoded electron respiratory chain subunits in breast, colon and liver cancers and also the mutations reported in cancers of the colon, stomach, bladder, head/neck and lung. Finally, we examine the role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated by mitochondria in the process of carcinogenesis.

Foundation for Mitochondrial Medicine (Carmen Avella)

Here we have a video of a talk given by Dr. John Shoffner about MD being related to two of the most important diseases of the XXI century: Autism and Parkinson's.

http://youtu.be/eSqZKVtlKNs

Fundation for Mirochondrial Medicine (Carmen Avella)

What we found here is an entire page created by the non-profit organization: Foundation for Mitochondrial Medicine in Atlanta, US this group is deeply focused in mitochondrial diseases,how to treat them, how can they be diagnosed and most of all provide reliable information for our society.

If you are not even aware of what happens when your mitochondrias are in bad shape, in this website you can find some of the most common symptoms and treatments available around the world along with some other useful information about the related diseases such as Alzheimer's or autism.

Mitochondrial disease is defined as the bad performance of this so-called organelle and can have symptoms as simple as fatigue or even memory loss.

It's very important to be informed of what can happen to our bodies not only in our organs but even at a cellular level.

Where are our Mitochondrias? (Karla Jimenez)

Here are some images so you can locate mitochondrias

ENJOY! 

Purpose

The purpose of this investigation is to report and analyze the problems that may exist in the functions of mitochondria, to know how they affect the body and seek any treatment.

Mitochondrial DNA Defects Causes Deafness

Here we are showing you a video related to a possible manifestation of MD: Deafness. 

Hope it's useful!

Karla Marina Jimenez Cayetano

Articles related to the subject

On this section you can find the articles used for this blog, use them wisely ;)

http://mitochondrialdiseases.org/mitochondrial-disease/  Avella Arteaga Maria del Carmen


http://www.umdf.org/site/pp.aspx?c=8qKOJ0MvF7LUG&b=7934627  Jimenez Cayetano Karla Marina
Summary

http://www.geneticorigins.org/mito/mitoframeset.htm Acosta Lucero Brandon 

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION 

The mitochondrion is a membrane-bound organelle found in most eukaryotic cells, the cells that make up plants and animals, Mitochondria range from 0.5 to 1.0 micrometer (μm) in diameter. These structures are sometimes described as "cellular power" because they generate most of the cell's supply of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), used as a source of chemical energy. In addition to supplying cellular energy, mitochondria are involved in other tasks such as signaling, cellular differentiation, cell death, as well as the control of the cell cycle and cell growth. Mitochondria have been implicated in several human diseases, including mitochondrial disorders and cardiac dysfunction, and may play a role in the aging process.The mitochondrion is an important organelle for the cell realizes its basic functions.

Mitochondria in the body is an organelle imporatante then performed to obtain specific energy metabolism for human tasks. With inluso malfunction or without the presence of mitochondrial metabolism could fail, resulting in disease, the present work is to understand how a mitochondrion may fail and this would cause.