59 5.5: Mitophagy and Altered Mitochondrial Dynamics
Overview
The next few sections will focus specifically on the effects of electronic cigarettes on mitochondrial stress response.
Results
Mitophagy is not increased in the treatment groups of E-liquids and aerosols. This is shown through microscopic visualization of the ptfLC3 plasmid in the treatment groups. This suggests that damaged and dysfunctional mitochondria cannot be properly eliminated, thus propagating pro-apoptotic signalling (Zahedi et al., 2019).
Mitochondrial motion analysis reveals that E-liquid treated neural stem cells experience an increase in small motion and decrease in large motion compared to the untreated control group. The aerosol treated group experiences an increase in large motion and decrease in small motion (Zahedi et al., 2019).
Key Takeaways
- Mitophagy is not significantly increased
- Changes to mitochondrial dynamics depend on the treatment being administered (i.e. E-liquid vs. aerosol)