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.