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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Susan Betts, Dr Evelyn Jaros, Emeritus Professor Robert Perry, Dr Andrew Schaefer, Professor Robert Taylor, Zeinab Abdel-All, Professor Robert Lightowlers, Emeritus Professor Doug Turnbull
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Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) disease is an important genetic cause of neurological disability. A variety of different clinical features are observed and one of the most common phenotypes is MELAS (Mitochondrial Myopathy, Encephalopathy, Lactic Acidosis and Stroke-like episodes). The majority of patients with MELAS have the 3243A>G mtDNA mutation. The neuropathology is dominated by multifocal infarct-like lesions in the posterior cortex, thought to underlie the stroke-like episodes seen in patients. To investigate the relationship between mtDNA mutation load, mitochondrial dysfunction and neuropathological features in MELAS, we studied individual neurones from several brain regions of two individuals with the 3243A>G mutation using dual cytochrome c oxidase (COX) and succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) histochemistry, and Polymerase Chain Reaction Restriction Fragment Lenght Polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) analysis. We found a low number of COX-deficient neurones in all brain regions. There appeared to be no correlation between the threshold level for the 3243A>G mutation to cause COX deficiency within single neurones and the degree of pathology in affected brain regions. The most severe COX deficiency associated with the highest proportion of mutated mtDNA was present in the walls of the leptomeningeal and cortical blood vessels in all brain regions. We conclude that vascular mitochondrial dysfunction is important in the pathogenesis of the stroke-like episodes in MELAS patients. As migraine is a commonly encountered feature in MELAS, we propose that coupling of the vascular mitochondrial dysfunction with cortical spreading depression (CSD) might underlie the selective distribution of ischaemic lesions in the posterior cortex in these patients. © 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Author(s): Betts J, Jaros E, Perry RH, Schaefer AM, Taylor RW, Abdel-All Z, Lightowlers RN, Turnbull DM
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Neuropathology and Applied Neurobiology
Year: 2006
Volume: 32
Issue: 4
Pages: 359-373
ISSN (print): 0305-1846
ISSN (electronic): 1365-2990
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2990.2006.00731.x
DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2990.2006.00731.x
PubMed id: 16866982
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